Clearly I came into this game at exactly the wrong time. The stuff that has built up over time compounded with the base game has put me in a perpetual cycle of confusion. I got to the 4th Act and ran across the Azurite mine and went 'what the fuck is THIS now??'. Its interesting that some things created for these leagues make it into the 'main' game and others do not, especially when you consider how much work went into making this stuff.
The Synthesis / Nexus stuff seems to be a crazy complex chunk of content and its wild that it will soon be eradicated?