Well, runes served a completely different purpose in D2 so it's really tough to compare. Runes now are more like glyphs from WoW.
I personally liked the runes in D2 (post 1.10, they made for a somewhat interesting economy). Rushing for forge/countess runs/pit runs/etc. were actually enjoyable. Coming across an Um+ was always nice, Ist+ was awesome, Zod/Jah/Ber was like winning the lottery.
I think that was about the old Diablo 3 rune system where you had to find them as drops, not comparing it to D2's system.