...but the reason for those design decisions is because the Diablo 3 team didn't have the experience of the Diablo 1/2 team.
I disagree. Admitting upfront that I have zero game design experience, it logically still seems to stand to reason that inexperience is not as big of a detriment to game-making as skewed priorities. It wasn't inexperience that caused the designers of D3 to develop it as a half-assed MMO with a cash shop scam as its focal point. It may have been greed, it may have been arrogance, or publisher meddling ... or it may have been just plain old fashioned stupidity, but I just can't see chalking it up to inexperience.
And to those mentioning Hellgate London, I'd like to point out that the same exact thing - skewed priorities - was the case in that game as is the case in D3. Hellgate's foundation and core concept were extremely sound; it was idiot Bill Roper's decision to spend more time shoehorning a cash-grab subscription model into the game and less time making a good game fleshed out with rich content that sunk it.
I wonder what all of the dudes who bought lifetime subscriptions did with them?
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
- Mahatma Gandhi