It might be just subjective, but I have played D3 (which D4 is more akin to) and D2, and I got bored rather early. D2 had some great mechanics, but in certain aspects it's also stupidly rough around the edges when it comes to game design.

Most unique items give counterintuitive and sometimes straight high-on-pot bonuses. It screams that they were designed in the early stages of the game when developers honestly thought a sorceress can just run around and bonk enemies in the head with a staff (which is fair at rather low levels, but by the time you find these uniques... it's like hopping off of a motorboat onto a floating wooden chair and paddling with a fork).

Before D2R, a bunch of builds were meh at best, weak more often. While classes don't necessarily have to be all viable by focusing on one specific branch, but it's kind of disappointing when you realise you can't just make a curse necromancer.

There are also a bunch of skills that are one point wonders. Again, it's not a requirement for all skills to scale well with points, but it just feels poorly designed for me when there are so many skills that are not worth spending on them. Critical hit? Why not, add 6-7 points into it (might not be the right skill/number, just an example). But you know what? We also allow you to add another 13-14 points with a negligible difference, because why not. All skills can get 20 points, so no exceptions.

The synergies in LOD were a nice addition and a creative fix for some builds, but some synergies still didn't make sense. D2R also made some improvements, but if you want to build a Spearzon, you'll still find yourself paddling with the aforementioned fork here and there.

I have never played D4, but I would still choose D2 over D3. But I feel like the player base is mostly the ones who played it back when it came out, and felt nostalgic about it. As players who grew up with better polished games, I think the younger generation would go with something that feels less like economy class.

D2 is a better Diablo game than D4. I've played D4 and I can see it being fun (not for me but someone else) but it ain't Diablo, very much a sucessor to D3 tho, that also isn't a good Diablo game.

I have not paid attention to the Diablo series for a while now, but I was tempted to drop back in with D2 for quality of life improvements and new content.

I have D4 sitting around, I just didn't have the same feeling to try again.

Yeah, so what's your point? The meme is talking about the "biggest success of last 25 years", so a 22 year old game fits perfectly within that.