Better tutorials in the form of quest rewards.

I would really love a more hands on approach to teaching players how to use the various systems in PoE and think quest rewards are the perfect spot.

After you kill Kitava (for the second time before heading into maps) Sin could totally give you a quest item divine vessel and explain how the pantheon expands into mapping. Have the first tier of maps contain 2 bosses with minor power upgrades, and update the pantheon itself to state which map each boss is located along with their name. Could help new players learn the ropes + patch one of the more egregious holes in your fresh character's defenses.

The early rare item quest rewards could also use a facelift. Instead of offering random pre-rolled rares, give the player an untimed mini Tiny's Trail with some basic currency and maybe an essence or 2. I don't think there's much worry in flooding trade with ilvl 10-45 rares and you actually teach people what all this random stuff they're picking up does without the fear associated with accidentally using something super uncommon. Is an alteration crazy rare? I dunno if I have 3 hours played.

The first time you meet Helena she could give you a free bench craft. Could be a quest to craft a flask, quest to use a currency on a strongbox, etc etc.

In a game as complex as PoE I think there's a very real fear in learning to use the items you are actually picking up instead of just hording everything until "end-game" and just expecting the campaign to be a cake walk. Tuning the acts a little harder wouldn't be so off putting to newer players if you were properly introduced to more of the tools to combat the difficulty. There's an immense amount of information to parse through for this game and trying to do it all at once initially is a big ask for anyone who hasn't been invested yet.