Unpopular opinion: Akali is what a well-designed assassin should look like.

And this is speaking as someone who hardly played Akali, so most of it is experience from playing against her. Yes, she can 100-0 you in a single rotation with help of Gunblade+Electrocute-Ignite, but that's hardly an Akali-exclusive problem these days. I'm talking about the way her kit works - compared to other assassins she's loaded with counterplay.

First and foremost, her only non-ultimate gapcloser requiring her to land a blockable skillshot. This alone makes playing around Akali's engage actually possible, where most other assassins get to decide when and where to engage/disengage on a whim. It is also way less effective as an escape than it is as an engage.

Then we have her passive encouraging hit-and-run tactics, weaving in and out of combat until her opponent is low enough for a finishing blow, while other assassins get to unload all of their damage within a single fast combo.

Shroud invisibility is annoying, yes. But do you know what would be even more annoying? If she could use a basic ability to dash half a screen away when she feels endangered. With Shroud, you at least know the general area where she's in and can try to land a skillshot/AoE on her.

Also, she actually has energy costs unlike Zed. 2 Q's early game without utilizing your passive or Shroud and you are OOE already. Yes, I am aware that it has a lower cooldown but it also comes with a much worse energy->damage ratio. This means that just playing safe and spamming Q to waveclear/harass while behind isn't as good of an option.

And let's not forget that her execution ultimate is both delayed (2 seconds after first cast) and dodgeable. That's as fair as it gets.

Only thing I'd object is really unfair is Shroud making you immune to turrets. But get rid of that and you have probably the best assassin design-wise. Honestly I think she just gets a lot of stigma from being a CertainlyT champion; things that would normally be considered annoying at worst become amplified 10 times and get branded as cancer incarnate because of the name behind them. Still, if I have to choose my midlane poison give me 5 Akalis over a single game versus a Zed, LB, Fizz or Talon.