Contradictory Design Decisions

TLDR - This is not a qq or a "Riot is stupid" post. This is a "I don't understand your thought process" post.

With the new Kass nerfs to his ult i can't help but feel that you nerfed the wrong thing. Way back when Diana was released she was the queen of mid. Mostly because of he shield made her tanky and her burst was real. The result was that no one could trade with her. Yet the thing with the Kass rework I've always had a problem with was that you gave him a shield.

The current problem with Kass is that you can't bully him out of lane early because you will run out of mana before he runs out of health pots. And after early lane you can't trade back evenly because of his shield (which scales with his passive). Kass doesn't even need to choose between defense or offense (like Diana did) because he gets both from the same ability. Why is Kass allowed to have high burst and be tanky when Diana was gutted for that very reason? What is the design difference?

Also, why is Xerath allowed to poke you from off the map but Azir is not? Granted, Riot admitted the Azir buffs were a bit to harsh, but as a player I have always found Xerath way more oppressive than Azir was. Sure Azir can poke, but he can't finish you off. And you can retaliate. With Xerath he can poke harder from farther and then ult to finish you. Xerath also is not lacking in the late game department either with all of his AOE abilities. I realize the late game fantasy of Azir was the reason you felt he could not be a lane bully, but why is Xerath allowed to be both a lane bully and late game God? Xerath has much better burst and wave clear abilities too.