Autofilling after short queue times

Let me start by saying I understand the purpose of autofill to keep queue times under control, especially during offpeak hours and especially at high MMR where the player pool is smaller.

However, from my recent experience it feels like the autofill might be dialed a bit high right now. In the last week or so, I’ve had several experiences where I was autofilled after sitting in the queue for only 2-3 minutes, when the expected queue time was also about 2-4 minutes. I’m not at high MMR (Gold V last season, Silver III right now), and I’ve been playing at normal hours (3-11 PM EST).

If I remember correctly, each time I’ve been autofilled I was in Normal Draft champ select as part of a 2-3 man premade, and then someone outside my premade dodged. Then, my new match was found almost instantly, but I would be autofilled. Is this the intended behavior? Do I have to be put back into a match instantly even though I had only been in queue a couple minutes? If I haven’t even waited the estimated queue time, I’m ok with waiting a few more minutes to get one of my roles.

It’s also frustrating when I have autofill protection from playing support but then someone dodges in the next champ select and I lose the protection. It feels unfair that I lose it because of something entirely out of my control.

Maybe Riot’s data suggests that turning autofill down a little means queue times will triple. Maybe I’m just one of the few unlucky players to have been autofilled a lot. But either way, autofill is easily the most frustrating part of League for me.