Aurelion Sol's Huge Weakness

#The problem As we all know, and as Riot pointed out on his release, his biggest intended weakness is that he has very little damage when someone is within melee range.

My question is: Why did they intend a champion to be weak specifically against everyone melee, and even more specifically against the already-strongest type of champs-- those who can close the gap far too easily for counterplay?

That makes him weak to a large majority of the viable champions, even if we exclude his weakness to anyone who has more range than him. (And we won't even talk about how easy he is to beat with Zed-- you know, everyone's favorite, balanced champion with just as many weaknesses as Sol)

#One possible solution: Edited 3 stars. Varying orbits. W increases damage and speed, but the stars are far enough apart that someone standing between them won't be hit unless it's Cho'gath with 6 Feast stacks.

A lot of you seem to be under the impression that it's healthy his "range" be at a fixed position, unlike every other champion in the entire game. He has none of the strengths of a ranged caster, and cannot be picked to fill that space. He's closer in design and play stile to Swain or Vladimir, minus the sustain and ability to cast skills up close.

EDIT (VERY IMPORTANT): It seems that some of you have confused "melee" with "AD". all being prime examples of champions he would be fighting in mid lane.

I'm not saying that his DEFENSE is the problem, but that he has almost zero OFFENSE at that range. It's also incredibly easy to avoid the stars unless you're the kind of genius who chases Singed.

Tl;DR Aurelion Sol's design was bad. He's a bad pick against top tier champs, not a clear counter for any, and only does exceedingly well against champs with low pick rates. You want to play him, go right ahead. He's incredibly easy to counterpick and play against.