There are rare aspects that are item-only that can still change up skills, e.g. there is a rogue aspect that makes Rapid-fire ricochet making it viable for AoE. It's not a huge shift but it does contradict this statement.
There are even better examples when you look at the druid, certains aspects really turn some of the skills around.
Just to give a few examples, off the top of my head:
Dire Wolf's Aspect - Grizzly Rage now turns you into a Greater Werewolf (instead of a werebear) - a skill one probably wouldn't even consider in any way part of a werewolf build can now become a centerpiece.
Aspect of Metamorphic Stone - Boulder is now a Core skill, which fundamentally changes its operation (spirit cost vs. cooldown), it also means it now synergizes with other stuff:
e.g. Aspect of Retaliation (+% damage to core skills based on amount of fortify), or that other aspect that makes basic skills power up core skills, or that legendary ring that works on core skills.
IMO, this already showcases that they can easily add depth to the system if they need/want to (skill synergies operate on tags which can be manipulated like this),
but will they actually? Fuck knows. This is Blizzard, they are able to screw things up in mysterious ways.
I could agree with the general sentiment that D4's skill tree doesn't make a particularly great first impression, only a few skills, some offering better dps up front,
then a single binary choice that doesn't really seem that difficult to make, and then you get all these dinky +1% to this and +5% to that you see on various passives,
but it does come together as something that's more than a sum of its parts - but needs to be put in a context of playing the game way past 25 levels.
It's a weird hill to die on anyway. In all the games in the genre there comes a point where you've basically "seen it all,"
but here it only "gets there" after world tier III and once you slog past the main campaign (I was not a fan).
So yeah, saying you played the server slams means you barely got the tip in. Granted, the thing isn't particularly lengthy, but still just the tip.