do the rune changes actually make the system any better?

so riot is making the tier 1 and 2 runes really cheap and removing the rune combiner so that new players can more easily learn about and experiment with runes without feeling like they've been trapped into wasting IP, but does this actually serve to accomplish these goals?

feeling like IP has been wasted: the old system allowed you to combine runes into higher tier runes, with the cheapest runes of a tier this actually led to an increase in IP value, although not by much and the random nature of what you would get often meant you would get secondary runes or runes from bizarre stats or with underpowered values that were basically worthless. the thing is, that at least meant that tier 1 and 2 runes still had a small amount of value at high levels whereas now tier 1 and 2 runes have literally zero value and will sit in your inventory, reminding you every day that you could afford that champion a few days sooner

learning and experimenting: low level players can easily afford cheaper runes to see what works best and how big of an effect it will have on their game. However, for an experiment to be a success you need a proper control and riot's matchmaking makes that virtually impossible. buying runes gives you more power in a game so you are more likely to win, then you are matched against stronger summoners. it's likely these summoners have more or better runes than the one you just beat so you don't really know if your one rune setup is better than another or if your opponents this time just have more or fewer runes or are just good enough to overcome your runes. no level 30 player would consider experimenting with a different setup by purchasing tier 2 or tier 1 runes to test the waters because your data will be garbage when you're only getting like half the stats that you'd have from a tier 3 rune and low level players have way more variables at play and a smaller population size for matchmaking to make their games generally less evenly matched.

tl;dr: rune changes don't make anything better or worse and the rune system is still garbage all around.