Builds Take too long to "Come Online"

Anyone else feel like you're build is starving up until like the 90s. I've tried a lot of build ideas and concepts that I think would be cool but it just feels like by the time I finish the campaign my build still has no identity and I don't really know where I'm taking it yet, as opposed to PoE 1 where I usually feel like "my build" by the 40-50s and from then on it's just up to me to choose how I scale it. The fun gameplay comes first, then power comes later. PoE 2 feels like the opposite, I always feel like I'm powerful enough, but cool build stuff just doesn't really happen until way late in the end game.
PoE 1 makes you grind for power, PoE 2 makes you grind to make your build less clunky.

As a disclaimer, I'm not talking about meta builds and skills, I'm primally someone who likes to experiment and try underutilized skills and Ascendancies. I never rate a build by how fast it clears a map, or the DPS number in PoB. I just like taking a build concept and solving it like a puzzle until I can make it work the best I can, but in PoE 2 I feel like I don't get to start solving the puzzle until way late in the end game, making everything up to that point feel like a total slog.

Depends on build. I made "Fartmaster" build in 0.2 that relied on 2 lvl 1 uniques so you could basicaly "feel it" since beginning. This league i made pure Charged Oil Barrage tgat kick in at lvl 33 when you can equip redflare conduit. But then you want to check Flicker Strike, but its obtainable at lvl 52 and its weird to "start" build towards the end of act 4.

You often need some combination of uniques+skill+ascendency. And the gems being locked behind lvl does alot, especialy for spirit gems. GGG shoud try to halve it so top tier would require lvl 30 max.