I tried D2R for a year but the slow load screens, terrible chat/friends list/channel system function and aesthetics were garbage. The graphics are okay but the look of the classes and animations are another downgrade. The game as a whole just came across as a low effort product from Blizzard.
I agree on the chat/friends/channel system, and as far as the aesthetics go maybe some facial expressions are not what I imagined they would be (for example the Amazon that I thought of as more younger and vital instead of older and war-ridden), but given the complexity of the underlying game mechanics, I think it was an awesome job tbh. It's modern, yet not cartoonish like the plethora of d2 clones and d2-alike games that we've gotten over the years.