I love the passive tree in PoE and while I wouldn't mind being able to re-spec at will, I like how it instead is built into the item/barter economy. Right now I have about 4 Orbs of Regret, or whatever they're called, that you use to unlearn skills; a bit of haggling in trade chat can get you more in no time. That's cool, imo
IMO one of the best ways to judge controls is during hectic combat gameplay, regardless of the game's genre. Back in August I found myself fumbling around, barely able to survive fights due to weird bugs or fucked up hit detection. Last night I almost felt like I was playing a slower version of my D3 Barb. As my attack speed gets higher the combat will feel even better, although I do hope hit detection and animations continue to be improved. Hell just watching streams of high level players shows how smooth shit is later. That's a questionable game design decision - it seems like it makes more sense to hook people early with fast, tight gameplay - but since I plan on long term investment in the game it's not a big concern to me.