Playing any champ you want

I remember reading an article posted by Riot, stating that they were striving to make LoL a game where a player can pick any champ they liked, despite what champs the other team picked. Essentially, they seemed to be saying they didn't want people being constrained to picking a champ to directly counter another champ, even if they don't want to play that champ.

That is an admiral goal, but as a LoL youtuber pointed out, as soon as Riot creates a champ, it automatically has strengths and weaknesses, which can be exploited by other champs. So the problem is just innate in the game. The effort by Riot excites me because, like many others, I have certain champs that I like. Unfortunately, the champs I like aren't among the top 20 played champs and are quite often the underdogs; here's looking at you pre-reworked .

I don't work for Riot but I was thinking about how to balance out the game, which would help achieve the desired affect. Then I thought: ITEMS!. If more items were instituted that allowed for more variety, it would be easier to pick a certain champion without worrying about getting one-shot by your counter. Consequently, adding more, varied, items would also allow of a large differentiation of path builds. Perhaps this is too drastic but maybe, every champ should have an item counter.

What are your, hopefully non-troll, thoughts?