What's the point of long range abilities?

I'm starting to question a lot of champions long range abilities, whether it's a CC spell or a damage/poke spell. Recently a lot of champions are having their long range poke/cc missle speed nerfed. If this is starting to become a trend, why even bother nerfing the speed? Nerfing the range would be about the same since many people can dodge a lot of the skill shots that come their way (Minus Xerath his Q is so annoying -_-). It's almost as if they want the bruiser meta to come back into league. People surely remember Season 2 with Jarvan?