What does Illaoi offer?

So, Illaoi has problems. Now just to be clear, I don't think she's broken (she has powerful damage, but its all pretty avoidable) but rather that she is weak when facing players with better understanding of positioning.

Basically she can be outplayed, but I don't think she can outplay others.

My issues:

1. She only seems to offer damage, but we have an entire class of champion (who are on the opposite side of the map) that are built around damage.
2. Now she does a utility ability, but I can't see where you would want it over a Blitzcrank hook, a thresh hook, a Nautilus hook, or even an Ahri charm. Sure it can create a vessel, but that only really harms players or teammates who have poor positioning.

Both Garen and Darius at least offer something if they fall behind (Garen's villain mechanic and Darius's hook. Not the best example for Darius I know). But Illaoi's utility is built around the mistakes of others. Not her exploiting those mistakes, but their mistakes in general (getting a kill from half way across the map with no vison there is incredibly awkward for me).

Apparently her ult can slam tentacles from all over the map (not sure on this) and you can teleport to her tentacles. But they don't show up on the map so you have to search for them (course that's only a problem if you play camera lock).

She feels too feast or famine to me. Her damage is worthless if the enemy is competent enough to dodge it (and we've all had moments when we've made bad plays that could have been avoided. So this isn't an insult to you if you get hit once in a while).

So why not give her tentacles more benefits or interactions? What about allowing her tentacles to act like wards? Their danger would still be dependent on enemy competence, but it would give her some defining utility.

Thoughts? What problems do you see with Illaoi's kit and how would you interact with it?