On Counterplay in Melee Vs. Melee Matchups

As someone who primarily plays damage dealing top laners, I've noticed that a lot of the avenues that Riot has taken to giving champions counterplay, tanks and juggernauts in particular, are not things that I have access to as a melee player. Riot has really doubled down on the "kite or die" patterns of most juggernauts and quite a few other champions, without really considering what it means to kite someone as a melee champion. This has made my top lane matchups this season feel far more stat-check-y than they have been in years.

For Example: Riot buffed Cho'gath's damage output, lategame tankiness, and crowd control over the course of several patches to push him into the meta. This, in and of itself, is not a problem. He was a weak champion before. The problem is not deciding to buff him, nor is it what areas they decided to improve him in. The problem is the specific abilities they buffed to get him to the state he is in, his E and his R.

These abilities being buffed don't pose much of a threat to an ADC or a Mage because they are melee abilities, and a ranged champion can damage the Cho from outside his threat range. But if I am laning against Cho'gath as a melee, there is nothing I can do to avoid those abilities if I ever want to fight Cho'gath, beyond playing around their cooldowns. They are targetted, and in the case of his R, instant. Is playing around the cooldowns enough counterplay? I'd argue not really, especially given the fact that his E cooldown is very short and that he is very likely to save his R cooldown for me. Because of the buffs to Cho'gath's E and R, I have no opportunity to outplay him as a melee champion, and the lane simply comes down to who gets ahead early.

The thing Riot seems to have forgotten with Cho'gath, and what they seem to forget with a lot of changes to melee champions, is that kiting is not just running away. Kiting is avoiding the enemy's damage output while simultaneously keeping your own damage output active. And kiting should be achievable as a melee.

This is not impossible to achieve. Case in point: Urgot. Urgot is a champion that can be kited in melee range, and while many would say this makes him frustrating to play, I think it makes him incredibly well designed. Yes, as a melee champion I probably have to wait for him to use his two closest passive procs to be able to fight him, but once those are down I can dance around in their cones, safe from his passive as long as I can dodge his E. It doesn't matter if I'm taking damage from his W if he's not proc'ing his passive off it. Very little of Urgot's damage output is guarenteed, even in melee range, and that's a beautiful thing, because it makes the counterplay to Urgot achievable for melee champions, which is a thing you can say about very few juggernauts.

Thanks for reading. To be clear, I don't necessarily think Cho is OP, nor do I necessarily think Urgot is perfect (I know he's a bit strong right now). If you are wondering whether I lost to a Cho'gath recently, yes, I did just lane against a Cho'gath and lose. I want it to be clear that I've been thinking of making this thread for a while, and that Cho'gath is just an easy example to use since I recently played against him.

EDIT: I also understand that Urgot is not actually a melee champion, and that the title I chose is a little confusing because of it. My points still stand, just think of the title as "On Achieving Counterplay While Playing A Melee Champion". Doesn't really have the same ring to it, now does it?