It might seem counter-intuitive, but I think what you’re describing is a better system. If unique items are too strong, when you find one you’re basically done with that entire gear slot, which limits your upgrade paths. Conversely, if a strong rare with perfect stats is better than every unique for that slot, that leaves the door open for a hypothetical future upgrade that could reshape your build, even if it’s incredibly rare to hit those BiS stats. Path of Exile does this well, in that there are only a couple unique items that are so strong they’re useful for every build (HH, Mageblood). Most unique items fall on the ‘weird/cool’ side, where they enable certain builds or skill combinations that otherwise wouldn’t have any chance of success, but they’re almost always significantly weaker than a perfect rare item.

Icy-veins is legit, they’ve been around doing game guides since Wrath of the Lich King was new. I want to say the name is even a reference to the WotLK Death Knight ability. No idea who runs it or what their deal is, but they’ve been a good resource for 10+ years so they’re doing something right.