What matters more (you as a player) thematically aligned champs? Or balanced ones?

I've always wondered what matters most to players, some argue thematics, others argue balance.

Now part of the true issue is:

Thematically sound champs are not always balanced, primary examples are:

, ,

Simply based on the reality that, once they get a few core items and a few kills, they become very difficult to stop. Sure, there will always be hard counters item or champion wise, but they are fairly snowball based.

Conversely, while there are a few champions who are thematically confused but strong, , more often than not, champions fit better outside existing themes for the sake of gameplay, such as . But the recent attempts at changes were designed to make him feel more thematic, but the outcry did prove that the changes may not have been intuitive to gameplay balance or life of a champion.

So, play wise, I do feel that Thematics are less important, given the fact that thematically, champions can be very over or under powered. But is that important to you as a player? Or do you feel that the thematics are more important to help better define a champion?