This one weird trick will make campaign 60% MORE fun!

So as Jonathan said in today's interview, the campaign is doing the same stuff as in maps and should be fun too, and if it isn't then GGG needs to make changes so that it's fun.

But a big part of the difference is not in the gameplay but in the rewards (real or perceived.)

For many games and gamers, the campaign is the game and that's where to look for fun. For PoE, it's a chore to get to the good parts. This is more of a psychological issue than a gameplay one, but that doesn't make it less important. The racing aspect of leagues contributes to that, probably not much to do there.

The huge difference in rewards in campaign vs endgame is the big factor that can be addressed. It's normal that juiced endgame is more rewarding, but it's not necessary for campaign to be so unrewarding.

Adding fixed rewards of meaningful stuff that retain value in endgame to the campaign is one way make it feel like a waste of time. Because if the player is frustrated because they feel they are wasting their time, there's not much you can do to make it fun.

Once upon a time, a quest reward in PoE 1 would give a Conqueror's Potency. Those could be bought for 1c at the start but then often worth 10-20 chaos, people liked to corrupt them and they were good. You couldn't get them from drops. They have been legacy for a long time and are now worth 50 divines in standard. I always felt the removal of these types of rewards to be a mistake and you should have gone further with it instead.

Fixed currency rewards... there was talk of artificers orbs, I would add more meaningful orbs like GCPs as well, maybe more.

Because of ilvls, all the gear found in campaign is going to be useless in endgame and that's fine. But there should be some things that retain their value and make it feel less like finishing it is the campaign's only reward, because then players will only think about getting it over with.