When will there ever be a way to alleviate AFKs?

AFK players have been an issue a problem for years already. The only thing present to discourage going AFK is the Leaverbuster system, which has a significant amount of flaws, such as distributing punishments to the wrong players or not punishing the AFK players. Even then, there is no compensation for the players who suffer because a teammate goes AFK mid-game or decides to never connect. While punishing AFKers is a step in the right direction, there should still be some system that alleviates the problem for players who do not disconnect from the game. Due to a lack of compensation for the players who choose to endure the pain of playing a 4v5, the systems that Riot have already implemented appear to not have any effect as the players do not see any of the results.

Riot, I acknowledge your attempts to discourage AFKers with the Leaverbuster system, and I praise you for taking action to the problem with AFKs. In fact, I even think it is a great move in order to lessen the occurrences of AFKs. However, Leaverbuster will not solve everything, and there are still the problems of unintentional D/c's ruining players' games and promotion series.

In order to improve the anti-AFK systems we already have, compensating the players who wish to stay despite the clear disadvantage would enhance the player experience for those who are suffering from an AFK teammate and potentially promote a healthier community. We have players who have suggested potential systems such as a Mercy System, allowing suffering teammates to lose less to a crippling variable that is out of their control, and most of the community are in favor of this. Players should only lose a game due to a flaw in their gameplay, not for a teammate leaving the game as the player is not at fault for that crippling variable.

Conclusively, I believe that we have enough of an AFK-punishing system already. I think we need to have a system that compensates the innocent players who still suffer from AFK teammates. Having such a system, like the widely supported Mercy System would even promote positive behavior within the community as players now have a system that sympathizes with them. Players would most likely to feel better if there was a system that acted similarly to someone who says "I know you suffered; therefore, I am going to help you out a bit" rather than a system that was more like "I beat up that person who abandoned you." Yes, I know such system can be abused, but I strongly believe that our community would greatly benefit from this.