I feel like MF itself isn't as big of an issue as the fact you get literally ZERO loot (exaggeration, but you get it) without it. Why is the difference so large? This feels like one of those FOMO MF metas from poe1 but on steroids.

PoE1:

• 3.24 (IIQ still in the game) -- you'd still be completely fine without IIQ (!) on your gear and would make great returns, so we had builds like coc dd be the meta without typically running much if any MF at all.
• 3.25 (IIQ removed, IIR remaining) -- we have IIR% and there's benefit to running it, but it's not like night and day difference. It maybe adds like 15-20% div/hr difference in high-end mapping.

PoE2:

In PoE2, you literally get what feels like an order of magnitude more loot playing with even 100% IIR% on your gear and it just feels terrible. I feel like I and many other people wouldn't care as much if running 0 (or low) MF didn't feel so bad, but it feels absolutely terrible in comparison.

I feel like if not removing it altogether, it must be brought to a better balance ASAP. Make playing with 0% IIR a lot more rewarding compared to MFing and bring down the benefits running IIR% gets, if not outright removing it. I do kind of like IIR% when it's implemented well, but in PoE2 it's just cancer. No, literally, look at the ladder -- half of top 1000 is builds that can heavily MF, because playing without it you might as well be wasting your time.

I'm perfectly fine with IIR% in PoE1 right now and would love the same kind of balance in PoE2, where people are still rewarded for putting MF on their gear, but it doesn't feel mandatory at all to do so.