Is elise no longer "viable"?

Let me start off by saying, any champion is viable in the right hands, even bard. Also noob post warning, I'm level 22.

Anyway, what I was particularly upset to hear is that 5 different people told me that my main is useless. I disagreed with them as I've seen elise in the ranked draft replays (it's how I learn, by watching) and they said elise is basically one of the lower "tier" characters like bard, anybody who thinks they can handle her and is mlg enough to use her, will be brave and cocky enough to actually bring her in ranked, just like bard players are dominant in ranked somehow. Ironically, every elise game I watched, the victor was the elise user, but once again, it's a skill statistic.. not a champion statistic. In disbelief of them, I did research from past and current seasons, and apparently a lot of people are complaining how mediocre she is now, and then due to the harsh nerf back when she was introduced, that very nerf bothered her for the rest of her current life even to preseason 6, and those that asked for a buff got responses saying she's balanced now.. yet at the same time she's bad?

Now the one thing I can agree on, is she's really hard to use... whether it's a skillshot that a minion blocks, a match up issue, and generally jungling is not the easiest job in the world. Of course, I am rather new to the game.. a couple weeks and still learning the ins and outs. Learning when to gank and when not to (I assume if the lane I'm nearby has red near our turrets, I can gank them at level 3 while they can't retreat to theirs) so my thought process and understanding of using her may be shakey, but I'm more focusing on how well elise actually is in general, if she's really "in the meta" rather than focusing on my suck.

One thing that almost convinced me that elise is not that great, was seeing lee sin and tryndamere everywhere. Almost 5 games in a row, the opposing jungler was lee sin who took lives like nothing, not even my own, but my allies.. In one of them, I think he seen me twice all game, yet managed 12/0 by the end of the match. Zac was another one, but I blame my noobish knowledge of the game, didn't know he was a tank you can't 1v1.. he was fed until I eventually figured out what he does. Nocturne was another one, but I actually had no issues counter ganking him with elise. I've seen some good nocturnes, and some really bad ones that ulted after me while I was at full health with a coon ready.. but when I used him myself, my first match was smoother and more beautiful then about 9/10 of my elise matches. I got instantly comfortable with nocturne.. then aram gave him to me and that is where the fun ended... but regardless, I still loved jungling with him, and killing a dragon with no damage by the end of it.. but the reason why I'm not maining him right here (buying him though), is because I want to stay loyal to the design and character I want to main the most and even made me want to play LoL (I like spiders.).

Pretty much, assuming each character is at their fullest potential side by side, the problem I'm seeing is elise doesn't contribute that much in the late game, only early on, whereas it looks like lee sin and noc do that pressure all the time. (I didn't know level 2 ganks were possible until lee sin showed up..) Why run elise who's just as hard as lee sin and not do too much, when you can run lee sin and destroy lives like no tomorrow with the same learning experience? Even in the ranked matched I watched, the winning elises don't exactly do that much contributive, some have more deaths than kills, but lee sin matches get carried by him. Recorded videos on elise players don't exactly prove much to me, since they only show that "one" game where elise did really good rather than a loss, of course only the best game would be uploaded.

So, anyway what I wanted to ask: Is elise as bad as everybody telling me? Is elise actually a good character (not for a beginner yes, but in comparison to other junglers higher ranked). Personally I love using her, I've got her to level 5 yesterday, and it would be a shame if what they said about her is true and I'm too blind to take notice of it, I really want her to be good so I figured I'd ask others what they think, even taking any tips with why elise sometimes is a hold back incase I'm doing it wrong.

TL;DR: Is elise a good champion to use over other junglers?

Thank you for your time. :)