Bow being an AOE weapon doesn't fit what this game is trying to do IMHO
The current bow implementation doesn't support a traditional bow fantasy. Bow is by definition a ranged SINGLE target weapon. There is nothing more single target than that. As a bow enjoyer I want my bow to take time to fire but then deal shitloads of damage to a single mob with a high crit multiplier and maybe bleed/poison/burn damage. That's the fantasy. If you want to make it an AOE then some sort of penetration where it penetrates multiple mobs also works very well.
But what do we have in this game? 4 types of quiver that all turn the bow into a missile launcher. Like, who came up with that idea?
I tried playing a bow with my brother who is playing melee and and it made the game instantly unplayable because of friendly fire. And yes, I know I can choose not to use a quiver but isn't a quiver also part of the bow fantasy? Really stupid design that doesn't fit with anything else in this game.
Bow fantasy aside, I generally don't really see the need to have access to easily spammable AOE damage skills. This make sense in other ARPGS since you are fighting hundreds of mobs in single map but that's not the case here. I think AOE spells that have a long casting time make sense but that works because your friends have time to get away from them. It actually makes it a fun gameplay loop and is satisfying to pull off a long casting time strong AOE with a visually pleasing effect while your friends are dodging away from it.
What makes this game unique is that it is not your usual click button --> clear screen --> repeat game. Literally every other ARPG is doing that, this one is different. Yes, it might not cater to the POE/POE2 crowd, but that's fine. There are so many ARPGs doing that better. Just focus on what makes NRFTW different rather than trying to cater to the zoom zoom crowd.