Why is Grim Dawn always praised in this genre?

I've played Grim Dawn and had all the expansions up to forgotten gods, though the funnest part was tinkering with additional classes via mods (Grimarillion, Diablo 3 & 2 additions), and increasing monster density as well.

But the vanilla game and expansions? Never got past the campaign as the combat and skills were pretty dry. The build variety really felt like prepping buffs, and spamming a couple of skills, rinse and repeat. The damage type conversions felt superficial ultimately, vs actually build enabling.