I don't know if it was a mistake, but it was a ton of damage added into the game that wasn't needed. I do agree with you though that it's sorta bs how your Rune choices gives you essentially a new passive though.
Lulu can use her W on an ally, and because of Aery, it also applies Ardent Censor. Before, that would've been two abilities, thus more mana used, thus not having her shield to block damage. But why choose to apply Ardent attack speed to kill quicker or shield damage at the right time when you can literally get both due to a rune choice. Better yet, do you not even have a shield on a support like Zilean, well Aery still lets you shield them, so take that those last ticks of ignite on my pre-6 Zilean.
Are you a feast or famine type champion? Just take Dark Harvest and now you are a psuedo-Nasus who never stops scaling so long as you aren't AFK. Oh, and bonus points, you get souls from your allies as well, so if your ADC keeps dying, you can just use their soul to kill the enemy, because what actually is counterplay anyway. You should be able to beat your enemies over the head with your dead teammate's body.
Did you pick Yi and the enemy countered with Rammus? Well thank god you now have conqueror so it doesn't matter that Rammus is supposed to completely counter your champion. True damage just means him taunting you is him admitting defeat.
The sad part is we aren't playing the champions anymore, it's the runes. When you don't even need your full combo to 100-0 kill someone, there's an indicator that things need to change. You no longer die because that Rengar perfectly did his R and used EQQW in the air during the lunge to you. No, he just has Dark Harvest so he just R'd in and pressed Q when he landed, boom, dead ADC.
