Rubbish loots and terribad rewards in POE - what's the point?

OK, so I have managed to make my way into Merciless Act 3 and at Level 66 yet I still encounter 90+% terribad drops and even worse the quest rewards items are Level 40 or way below - what gives?

What is the point making all the rare monsters etc if the loots are terribad?

Where is the incentive for completing quests when the rewards are rubbish?

Trading and RNG and crafting aside - the currency drop rates are even more terribad. The only thing that drops with any regularity is portal scroll and wisdom scrolls.

I'm trying to attract new players to this game but they often wonder how would they progress or what is the incentive of playing through if they can't get gear in game to upgrade?

I thought this game's drops were supposed to be better than D3 - it is just only very marginally.

I agree on the quest rewards ( only about item rewards ofc ), they seem to just give a random rare ... which is in most of the cases garbage.

Now, higher level mobs drop gear that have a higher potential, but the rolls on those pieces of gear can still be low ( but they can still be high ).

Once you start having a nice gear, finding upgrades on your own gets difficult, and the probability of finding some is really low.
That's where trading comes in handy, basically.

That is typically what happens in ARPG's. Just because a rare item drops, doesn't mean it has to be good just because you're at X level. I prefer a system like this because atleast it feels rewarding when you actually find/craft something of worth. Also the quests aren't meant to give godly rewards, the items aren't bound and the early game isn't long, otherwise people would just keep rushing characters through the game to farm items.

Nothing about D3 was done well in any aspect of itemization, it was just cater to the casual and move on.