Ryze is NOT strong because of his snare.

Since people have been talking about Ryze shouldn't have a targeted snare given his damage, I thought I would point out that Twisted Fate's Gold Card does over 1k damage late-game and it's a long ranged stun. Pantheon can 100-0 you in his stun come mid-game unless you build armor.

So what makes Ryze different/less acceptable?

It's the fact there's no clear cut way to deal with him. If you look at Twisted Fate, he's squishy and has windows in which he can be bullied because he has slow, telegraphed spells (btfo when he starts cycling cards, Q is easy to dodge, E stacks are visible to everyone). You can outburst him or outdps him but in return he has massive utility and (once he scales up) chainable targeted stuns.

Go back to Pantheon and you'll notice a really stupid, oppressive lane. Early on there's no clear cut way to deal with or fight Pantheon. You can't stay in your wave, out of your wave, you can't even think about your wave. The reason Pantheon is allowed to stay this way is because he does not scale into the late-game.

That's essentially Ryze, except Ryze scales. He's a monster when you're in your minions, he'll run up to you and W you and then combo you if you're out of them. You can't really reliably burst him, but you're not gonna outdps him. He's far too safe in lane and he scales into a walking trigger for League players.

In his current state Ryze will continue to be one of the most powerful midlaners in the game unless he has no numbers (absurdly low damage) on his skills.