If leech does get nerfed in such a severe way, then mitigation options need to be heavily improved and the one shot mechanics need to be toned down or removed. I honestly wonder how many players that have been calling for leech nerfs have played a non offscreen clearing build without Vaal Pact or Vinktar's

These types of builds are pretty much all I make, and I can say that it's just fine.

Mitigation in this game is decent, just limited in options. Like, there's not a lot of mitigation avenues, but they do work, will keep you alive through basically anything etc. without issue, there's just not a lot of diversity.

Block, Endurance charges, regen, armour, IC, etc. all work incredibly well. You can make a character so tanky nothing outside of volatiles is even a concern. Seriously. Especially block builds.

The one thing that takes a hit is speed obviously. It takes a lot of investment. I'm OK with it, but a lot aren't. They want to go fast so don't like the idea of being 'forced' to spec a lot of defense.

I simply see it as par for the course. In other arpgs, like say Titan Quest or Grim Dawn, hell you have like 10+ resistances to cap, then need other defenses etc. I see PoE these days as the outlier. Taking like 10 defense nodes and being viable for everything the game can throw at you is pretty silly.