More serious response: You're not alone. You're not imagining it, the game mechanics are very different now (or rather you need to use the mechanics much more now). You're going to get a lot of people telling you to stop complaining because "more challenging" automatically means "more fun for every type of player".
I've found the advice from other players in the in-game chat really useful in this regard, "Your gear is trash! You should feel bad! go spend money at the Auction House for some better gear before you start crying in chat!" Really helpful advice! And then when I hit the next level I get to go back to the Auction House to…
Sorry, but I'm just going to piggyback on your post a little bit since I can't create my own thread, and I'm one of those lost players you're referencing. I started playing like two weeks ago, and was really enjoying the game. I was spending most of my non-working, non-sleeping hours playing, and having a blast. The day…