Sometimes I really do wish Riot's balance team would take the easy path.

Removing runes and in turn balancing champs after doing so would be an easy path.

The runes do not provide much of any choice since each champ has a clear 1 or 2 that are far better than everything else they could take.

You don't see things like phase Rush Jax because that is a huge loss of power. You see Jax taking Conqueror or press the attack and that is basically all he would ever take becasue taking somethign else is likely to lose him a lot of power.

Supports with shields will basically always take Aery.

If a rune is too strong you end up with everyone taking it like stopwatch.

In turn the new rune system has the same exact problem that the old system had where champs have a set page that must be used to be most effective. In turn the runes are more of an extension of the champion instead of a players preference of play style. This will always be the issue and champs will have to be balanced around their most optimal rune instead of the runes being an option you can take based on something that would be nice to have.

Literally the only ones that ever seem to be situationally worth taking are things like Stormraider's Surge which if you were in a losing match up against Nasus might allow you to get away alive.

Fighters having to take Conqueror to deal reasonable damage to tanks suggests a deeper problem for which the rune is only a band-aid. Or marksmen taking fleet footwork so that poke doesn't matter as much makes the lane bullies you want to be effective early game not as much of a threat.

Dota 2 does not have runes and it doesn't need them. And if it had them every hero would end up with the same general runes every game if they were anything like what is in league.

Runes are not needed for the game to be good. They are an unnecessary balancing nightmare and removing them would not decrease the long term enjoyment of the game after the balancing period was over.

So Riot balance team why do you take the hard road when in reality it is not going to provided a better result in the long run?

And yes I know rune pages would need to be refunded or compensated in some way. I'm not getting into that as it is another topic.