That’s an easy cop out. The difficulty in crafting runewords early game should be the same as late game. Late game difficulty lies in the scarcity of runes. Early on it is the scarcity (non existence actually) of proper bases.
The other issue to explore is why a class like the paladin has can equip both spirit sword and shield by level 25 whereas every other class as to wait until at least level 54 to equip a 4 socket shield.
These disparities are important if we want balance and a more equal footing on ladder viability. A Leaf staff isn’t hard at all to make and the base can be purchased directly from a vendor without much difficulty. Stealth and Leaf enable a sorc to power through normal and nightmare.
I have talked about the power of Leaf here:
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d2r/t/sets-need-to-roll-ethereal-and-staffmods/
Melee builds already suck, they don’t need any more hindrance from developers. You actually don’t find anything wrong with 40% of 1h weapons being 2 sockets in NM and not having a single mid level rune word for it?