PotD and HoH were pretty good stuff back when I ran them. Haven’t really touched the new one yet, but I agree with a lot of OP’s points.

What kept me interested in PotD was the arcades game feel to it…like Gauntlet. It was absolutely not a guarantee to get through the dungeon on any given run (my skill is mid at best, don’t judge me!). This was fun. I liked having to pull carefully and take down a few monsters and minimize auto attack damage to get through it.

It auto attack damage is basically gone, then you can just steamroll pulls…which I think would feel very…meh. I mean, variant dungeon is already pretty boring because once you’ve done it maybe two or three times, you’ve seen everything it has to offer.

Deep dungeons can be very same-y, but the skin of your teeth/arcade game feel of it made it work.

Ultimately though, because there isn’t any horizontal progression or Diablo-style loot the appeal/push to do them does kinda burn out fast.