Skarner as a champion is bad

TL;DR I love Skarner, but he kinda sucks for a lot of reasons.

I want to preface this post by saying that Skarner is a champion I enjoy playing. I liked him before his first rework that removed his permaslow. I liked him after that got changed into a stacking MS and AS bonus on his Q. I still like him now. Gameplay wise, he is in a decent position, yet remains unpicked for being extremely linear and having little capacity to carry. I like his story, and I like what can be done with his story in the future (meeting Jayce or Viktor or other humans who use the crystals, seeing what they've done to his people, and what they've done as a result to/for their own). I like that he's one of the few non-humanoid champs in LoL (there's 9, by my count). I enjoy playing Skarner when I do play him, and he's the first champion (second being Nautilus, 3rd being Zac) that I fell in love with.

The 1st issue I have with Skarner involves the gameplay around the shrines. No other champions that I can think of have their base stats so heavily placed in an ability that can be removed from you by the enemy (MF and Teemo are close, but they nearly have full control over their damage). Being outside of a zone you control with Skarner feels like you're playing 4/5ths of a champ (unless you're spamming movespeed and pulling one guy in a fight). Inside a zone, you have better base stats than every champ in the game. For those who know Skarner, it's the difference between winning every duel and losing every duel. So, sometimes, there is 0 counterplay to how powerful Skarner is on the map. Unless you take his zone, in which case he becomes a gutted husk of a champion with abysmal base damage and crappy base stats that fail to compensate. This puts his passive and the Skarner player's ability to make plays before level 16 in the hands of his opponents. Will they be proactive and take away Skarner's ability to contest objectives? Or will they let Skarner have his overloaded base stats and control every jungle engagement? This means that at higher levels of play, Skarner is unplayable because your power level is dictated by your opponents. At lower ELO, this isn't as much of an issue, since people don't know how to play the map very well, if at all. I feel that Skarner's ability to be an effective champion is hindered by giving away so much of his power to smart opponents for little investment (same investment as destroying a Rek'Sai tunnel).

Which brings me to my second point: his Q (and, ultimately, his damage, as his Q is his only damage-oriented ability). An underwhelming ability that greatly defines Skarner as a champion. It screams "build Triforce or Frozen Gauntlet". So you do. Honestly, his Q isn't that bad, but it isn't that great. It does little more than a tickle to the opponent until you have 2 damage items (usually Warrior Enchantment and Triforce). Even at this point, you've invested so heavily into damage just to actually matter to your opponents that you have almost no defense. Alternatively, build Cinderhulk to FroGa and watch as you tank rather well, yet fail to threaten anyone after you use your ult. Since Tank Skarner does very little damage, you can't carry as a tank. You need to build damage if you're looking to carry.

To wrap up on his abilities, his W and R are fine, and are defining and quintessential parts of his kit. They don't need tweaking on their own, maybe if Skarner's actual base stats get changed. His E is a unique tool, potentially being a full team stun (one at a time) and being a really strong chase tool.

Remember that whole thing about your passive eating your base stats and leaving your power level at the mercy of the enemy team? Yeah, this is where that comes into play. Build damage, and you won't be tanky enough to approach the enemy until you have your 1st tank item. So you have to build tank at higher skill level. Except why would you play Skarner when you can play, for example, Gragas (tankier and damagier, more mobile, and can carry. Requires skill, but you have that if you're Plat and above)? Or, if you're low Elo, you can't build tank because then you do 0 damage. When your team fails to follow on a beautiful (albeit unintentionally so) initiation on an enemy carry (talking about 1v1), and then you subsequently die to them because your team is so slow on the followup that you already started making yourself a cup of tea while staring at the grey screen by the time they start MIA pinging you back to death for going in on your own (despite the 6 "I'm going in" pings right before you made your infiltration). To be fair, a lot of Skarner's failings come from team play, whether good opponents or bad allies. But, when the skill level of the other 9 players makes up the vast majority of influence on a champion's chance at success, it makes for an unsatisfying champion. A good player can mitigate this, but your equally skilled allies and enemies still matter more.

Back to the shrines, this time a lore to gameplay perspective. What exactly are they? Why are they only on the Rift when Skarner is there? How do they connect with his story? If they're the gems stolen from his kind, why would he not benefit from instead taking them back to base, or just picking them up? Why doesn't Jayce or Viktor get some kind of boost from the zone, if it's crystal power (I mean a joking -1 damage from Leona for having sunglasses kind of thing, not a true mechanical benefit)? If it's not crystal power, then how does it tie in to Skarner at all?

I don't mean to sound like I'm just bashing Skarner as if I don't like him. I do, and that's why I care.

Is there any plan to making changes to Skarner of any kind in the future, be it 1 month or 1 year (or anything between or beyond)?