Project Diablo 2 owes it success to the foundations GreenDude built with Path of Diablo and which SenpaiSomething ran off with because he didn't agree with leadership decision. His actions were petty and something is definitely off with him.
That being said Project Diablo 2 has turned out to be the better version, but only because SenpaiSomething has been better at marketing it and he chose opportune timing with D2R release, whereas Path of Exile was created way earlier.
It's just a shame they are so anal about trading on d2jsp or I might have given it more of my focus. I like making FG from the online games I play.
If I just wanted a great ARPG experience then both TitanQuest and Grim Dawn are offline and better games.