Why even close to balanced teams stomp each other.

The short version. Winner wins more.

If you win early game, then team gets ahead. However back in the day it was not this strong. Most champions could farm under turret. Even against counters. Dragon simply gave gold, and turret dive was a serious risk.

Now: Increased damage makes impossible to even farm under turret properly. You either go home, or die. And going home also means extra gold from plates.

Dragons give permanent buffs. Which technically multiplies the value of your current stats. So you get agead of gold, and then multiply it's efficiency.

Thanks to the increased damage. Turret dives are easier, than ever. Squishies dies to assassins in a second. At level 3 you can dive squishy enemies in 2v1. I know, because we did with Leona Draven combo against Janna. Back in the day lvl3 dive was a suicide.

A side effect of the early dives is, that junglers tend to gank winning lane instead of turning losing lanes. This makes the winning lane's job even easier, and makes it getting even stronger.

Another side effect of the insane damage is the destruction of turrets. I mean really fast. You can end the game in 25 minutes, if you got ahead a bit. Having a teamcomp filled with lategame champs is an auto-lose, because there will be no lategame.

Rift Herald forces teamfight, and gives tons of gold, if used properly. If your team is already ahead a bit, then a good herald charge can seal the game.

So the early winner won a lot more, but what about lategame. Can you turn the tide? Let's pretend, that enemy won't start a throwfest.

With infinite stackers. Yes. Without them. No. If you got too many lategame scalers, then there will be no lategame, and if not, then they gona outscale you with their buffs. Which is more, than ever. Dragons' permanent, elder, and baron. These stuff will give the stats beyond fullgear.

Of course this makes the game faster. Question is: This is a good thing? Do we prefer games, that are decided in 15 minutes, or we would like to play for an hour?