Prime Junta
Guest
You make it sound as if PoE 1 didn't have per encounter spells. But after lvl 9? they were unlocked. You also had Ciphers and Chanters with per encounter abilities. I didn't feel that the per rest system that transitioned into per encounter was any better than the system from PoE 2. Neither game had any sense of tension due to resource management in my opinion.
In P1 I'd conserve my highest-level spells for when I needed them and I managed my available spells strategically. In P2 I'd just always open with my highest-level spells because why not? Also in P1 the choice of which spells to unlock per-encounter was a significant character-building decision.
I never really cared for ciphers and chanters for the same reason, neither in P1 nor P2. The gameplay with them is really repetitive.
I agree that in P1 the tension due to resource management was somewhat self-imposed as camping supplies were so abundant, but at least it was there if you wanted it. I always tried to push as far as I could and only rested when I really had to. In P2 I barely even need to rest.
Obviously I can't argue with how you feel about it, but for me that single design decision was what broke the game for me. And yes I did try it with that one god challenge that makes everything per-enc but that doesn't really fix it, it throws it out of whack too far in the other direction.
Simply put, from where I'm standing Josh is so obsessed with stamping out degenerate gameplay that he's lost sight of how important per-rest casting is for this kind of thing.