The current price of runes makes me wonder why they weren't like this before

Personally, I find 10 IP much more fair. It's crazy to think, especially after they are removed, that even in order to get into this game on an even playing field you needed to spend 13,000+ IP to get a full T3 page. When they are priced 10 a piece, that means you need to win one game or lose two to get a full set, and that is much more reasonable to me, when it directly impacts game balance.

It's a very back handed way of making the game pay to win tbh. In order to be level 30 and have a full rune set up, you needed to save up IP starting at around level 15, and for a newer player, they usually don't think about this, and just buy champions. The only way to have a decent enough champion pool and runes, you'd have to buy a couple champions, and I don't think anyone was ever considering that.