Is the primary purpose of PoE supposed to be a "slot machine"?

WoW added a 'rotation assist' - the game literally plays for you. Before that many players were using 1 button macros/addons.

The vast majority of titles that put heavy focus on loot are played primarily for that, with some gameplay on the side.

Obviously there are outliers (like m+ push grps in wow that get nothing for their effort in terms of loot), but that is beside the point and can be said about pretty much anything, poe1/2 included.

Poe2 objectively puts much more focus on gameplay than poe1 ever did; probably as much as is feasible in a game of this type, the only question to be asked is whether things get worse, not better.

"Is the primary purpose of PoE supposed to be a slot machine." I hope not. I only play the game for its gameplay and the more it turns into a slot machine at the expense of engaging combat gameplay, the less fun I'll have.