Goal of balance - process of nerfing a champion's signature ability into never getting picked?

TL: DR: recently, champions on the "hate list" of Riot has just been flatly butchered alive into oblivion when the champion signature spell gets nerfed significantly, when that happens, the champion effectively disappears from the game.

This is even exacerbated by the process of nerfing a champion: first slow and steady, targeted at non-signature spells, then the nerfs are getting heavier and broader at a champion's non-signature abilities, then eventually, the signature ability just gets killed anyway without reversing or thinking about that the previous two steps have huge compounding impact of the game. Dimming the background abilities to show its core identity as well as shutting down its core ability, making the champions targeted simply will not and cannot, shine.

With the community outcry on Veigar and Kassadin, I believe it's a good time to take a good look at champions simply just was nerfed out of existence recently.

There is nothing wrong with nerfing champions rather than buffing them. I do buy the argument that buffing a champion has perhaps more complicated and unintentional consequences to the game than nerfing them. Riot is doing a good job at when buffing a champion, it is usually slow and steady, often with compensation "nerfs". But the opposite cannot be said to be true, recently, champions on the "hate list" of Riot has just been flatly butchered alive into oblivion without much of forethought and compensation. This especially happens when the champion signature spell gets nerfed significantly, when that happens, the champion effectively disappears from the game.

This is even exacerbated by the process of nerfing a champion: first slow and steady, targeted at non-signature spells, then the nerfs are getting heavier and broader at a champion's non-signature abilities, then eventually, the signature ability just gets killed anyway without reversing or thinking about that the previous two steps have huge compounding impact of the game. A champion may be fine and still viable when their signature ability gets butchered, but when all its other abilities also got butchered previously prior to the signature spell nerf, that is just it -- the champion is just simply over-nerfed into oblivion and often never seen again.

Let's look at a few examples:

Azir prior to patch 5.4, a long string of nerfs targetted at abilities other than his sand soldiers, the champion's signature. When his signature ability, soldier's range got heavily nerfed, he is gone, until 5.4, where Riot realizes the changes to him were too heavy and compensated for it. (Whether that is enough, is still a question).

Kassadin: after heavy "changes" to his other abilities, and nerfs to his new QWE, it is evident again to Riot that Kassadin cannot be balanced into a good place without heavily nerfing his signature spell rift walk, range was heavily cut similar to that of Azir's W. Again, Kassadin sent to oblivion, now Morello would state that compensation buff is incoming.

Kayle: after heavy nerfs to it's signature item Lich Bane (think of the DFG equivalent now), she not only did not receive compensation, but heavy nerfs to Q ratio (nearly cut by half), ult cooldown (nearly doubled it), and base, attack speed growth (heavily cut), Riot again finds that the face of its tribunal cannot be balanced without heavily nerfing her signature spell, E, cutting its ratio in half. Only to later compensate 0.05 ratio back to her. As a result, her effective damage is not even half what it used to be, after all her damage, from Q, from E, from lichbane, and from attack speed got heavily nerfed.

Veigar: similar to kayle, after flat-out removing DFG, veigar not only did not receive much buffs, but direct nerfs to his signature spells, including E and Q. Again similar to all champions above, veigar is too, nerfed into never picked.

Evelynn: Also a DFG user, heavily nerfed her entire package, but in spite of the new jungle challenges (and diversity), she got a few armor points and a E "change". Again a champion who was once popular but rather now into the oblivion.

There are more mentions, such as Yasuo and others who suffered the similar fate. Which prompts the community to ask: what is the goal of balance? Is it Wack/just kill a champion? Because recent examples do point to the that as the answer. Second important question is, when a champion cannot be balanced without heavily nerfing his or her's signature spell, such as Kassadin's R, Kayle's E, Azir's W, is that indicative of design flaws? Lastly, if a signature spell gets heavily butchered, such as Kassadin's R, Azir's W and Kayle's E, which are their identities, what gives players motivation to even play them?

These, with their background abilities also getting heavily nerfed during patches prior to their signature spell nerf, nearly always totally push a champion from getting picked again. Their identity is faded, the core nerfed, and all background ability to show its core identity also nerfed, what's left of them is an empty shell. Then of course, no one is going to pick them anymore.

Is this the goal? We would love to see Kassadin, Veigar, Eveylnn, Yasuo, Kayle and others back into the game again, without being broken and with their identity, maybe, try reverse some nerfs to their entire package (like Azir, not 400-300, but 400-375), light nerfs to the entire package may work better (700- 600 on kassain's R and reverse a bit of other nerfs, kayle E ratio to 0.3 and reverse AS growth and a bit of Q ratio to 0.8 for example).