state of the game

It's fully playable with effectivly a new "league" each patch. Endgame is kinda rough but is supposed to be getting major work done in 0.5. Campaign isn't complete, and some classes/ascendancies/skills/weapons have yet to be implemented, but you can easily put a week into it each patch.

It is better in presentation and early tutorialization then PoE1, but doesn't have the same depth as its 13 year old predecessor

It's a lot more modern and polished. Far better looking and sounding. Movement, combat, and boss fights all feel majorly improved. It's a fully playable EA that's just lacking a few pieces of content. There's currently 4 main story acts of 6 planned, and currently to get the rest of the way to end game maps there's a 3 mini act adventure after you complete act 4.

Still missing a few classes and ascedancies and the weapons that come with them. It more or less feels like poe 1 in the first few years. Yes there are seasons/leagues, we're currently on 4, 5 is being announced soon. Due to the low number of past seasons so far there are not as many end game mechanics as poe 1 currently. We have breach, delirium, rituals, abyssal, and this league they introduced a Vall temple building mechanic that is pretty complex and cool, the most impressive new seasonal mechanic so far. Worth playing for sure, I already like it better than 1 even though it's not finished. They do a free 3 day weekend with the start of every league, so if you don't want to shell out the $30 to check it out you can wait until the next season starts and try it for free. There's also plenty of content out there on YouTube and twitch if you would rather watch than play for now.