Does it seems like riot is more focused on design rather then the actual balancing of the game

A lot of riots focus this year has been designing these new champions and giving them this great story that makes them unique to Valoran and allows us to see another part of Leagues world, and although this has been clearly evident this year, it can't help but leave me with a sense that this has become riots main focus and that they are less focused on balancing the game. For example the qss nerf left ADC's defenseless against assassins such as a zed or fizz meanwhile with patch 6.9 Mages were updated to make them feel more diverse many of them are underpowered and there are stronger picks that are also more reliable leaving the updated mages in this position where they were updated but they didnt really need it, an example of this would be Vladimir, personally I don't play him but whenever I am up against him i feel that his old kit was much stronger, I will admit though I am happy with these changes because it makes him weaker to me it still proves a point that updating these champions that were updated for being the same or not really standing out doesn't always make it a good thing. In conclusion although riot is updating champions to make them feel more diverse or different, it's not always the best in terms of actual gameplay and will sometimes leave these updated champions with a fancy new kit, to wither in play rate and actual success in the game.

Tell me what you think down below on if you think design has gotten in the way of balancing the game and how.