Playing that favors comfortabality and fun vs. Playing that favors winning

This is going to be a longer post.

I started playing League towards the very end of season 4. My first champion was Leblanc because my roommate at the time would constantly show me highlights of Faker's play with that champion. My fascination over Faker's play once I learned how truly advanced it was, led me to try other assassins and eventually look and other pros and streamers. I was still learning the basics of the game and didn't truly have clear idea of the pros and cons of this game or the champions.

Throughout seasons 5 through 7, I cycled through maining ADC and JG, more specifically champions like Jinx, Kindred, and Jhin. My game knowledge increased. All of these champions had fun and unique playstyles that I could still WIN on and without sacrificing the fun feeling of League. Don't get me wrong, I have had plenty of fun times with the game and I'm sure you have too. With the implications First Blood towers, Weaker towers, and very snowbally games with a very small comeback factor, a lot of champions that have a funner play style ( at least to me) phased out in favor of champions that simply take the highest advantage of the game's current state. Whether this is for competitive play or general balancing purposes, I can feel this phasing out of champions more than ever at this point.

That brings me to my point. I can play a champion like Jinx now and maybe do decent, I know I'll have fun though. Or I could just play Ezreal who takes advantage of Kleptomancy, or MF who takes advantage of lethality. I'm currently a GP main and while Kleptomancy has helped him a great deal, I could easily just take a tank like Ornn or Maokai and have no trouble. Or hell, I could just be a masochist and play Pantheon or Jayce. What I'm trying to say is, I know all of these champions have had their problems and weaknesses, but I think winning in the current League landscape is more about how well you can take advantage of the games state rather than how well you can play something you truly like. Don't misunderstand me though, I know champions have their time to be weak/in the gutter/non-meta. But this is deeply exacerbated by how snowbally games are and the lack of a comeback factor.

Maybe my memory is fuzzy, but I know that when I started playing this game there were a plethora of ways to win. At least more than there is now.