Torchlight, and really all diablo-likes, has the problem of being too simple/easy, with higher difficulties primarily item-gated more than whatever skill/strategy; its long term value comes from multiplayer + grinding/trading qualities of random drops, and less so from well, playing it as-is.

As a result, they've never really satisfied my roguelike itch tbh.

Also, if that multiplayer + grind/trade/build characters + sets is the main value you get from Torchlight, then probably consider path of exile, which pretty much optimizes purely on the multiplayer aspects of Diablo 2 (Torchlight lacks some purpose imo; they set out to do a better Diablo 2, but didn't really pick a place to optimize, and didn't do well enough at optimizing everything, and didn't really remove any fundamental flaws)

I agree with your description. Torchlight II was a compromise - The original idea was to play Divinity Original Sins but I pushed us towards a simpler (and less expensive) game because I suspect neither of us would be able to devote enough mental effort and/or sustain interest for a long time. If my suspect is wrong, we will try to move on to something more complex.

Ah, well if you're willing to stray so far outside the genre, then The Pit - Infinity would be much closer, and has coop ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VlnIw9zCSE

Thanks for your suggestions. But I have to say that the title does not seem to be a huge hit: https://thirdcoastreview.com/2019/11/27/game-review-the-pit-...