I ordered 4 copies from Amazon (using two accounts since there is a 3 copy limit) then downloaded the demo from Blizzard on two machines for my wife and I to give it a try. We played 100's of hours of Diablo 2 together and with the Auction House going away (the main reason we didn't bother with D3) we we're both hopeful that it would offer a similiar fun experience.
Our experience was disappointing. In a 3 hour play session, we had a dozen disconnects and numerous times where the game would desync forcing a restart. The next day when I tried to play I was unable to because it was "maintenance Tuesday". I ended up cancelling my order with Amazon.
Was my experience just a fluke? Do the people who recommend the game play mostly single player?
I totally get where you're coming from. When I first restarted playing a few weeks ago (played for a few weeks after launch, then got bored) it was great. Literally everything I farmed from before (and by farmed, I mean played auction house simulator) I found better and more interesting items from my through playthrough. The most surprising part were the public games. I joined public games occasionally and they're a blast. They're not just people running through a single objective/dungeon and disconnecting. People clear entire acts together and it's a lot of fun. I play either on my own, in pubs, or with two of my friends .
I will say that I definitely get the experiences you're talking about though. There have been so many patches preparing for the new expansion that there are a ton of maitenance/patching days. There have been multiple days where I really want to play... but can't connect. Then it fades and I do something else and forget about D3 for a few days. I assume it'll get better since the huge changes from 2.0 and the expansion will settle down soon, but I'm not going to try to sell you on anything. D3 is definitely still fun for me, but I play it occasionally rather than obsessively.