Why exactly WAS Abyssal Scepter removed?

Too impactful mage vs mage lanes made rushing it needed everytime ap vs ap

It wasn't removed. It was changed to Abyssal mask.

It was stat-swapped with Banshee's Veil, the passives makes more sense that way.

They keep removing the most creative and cool items. Why do they do this, if you take a look at smite, their items are soooooooooo cool. All these aura items are still in the game, but smite knows how to balance these items but league just removes them cuz they are all iron league xD