What ever happened to that Role exempt queue type (and other questions)

When Solo Q was announced to be making a return, I could've sworn they were going to introduce the ability to select a role you'd be guaranteed not to get. So people could do like Fill, but never ADC, or something like that. Was this idea scrapped in favor auto-fill?

And about Auto-Fill... seriously what is the true purpose behind this? If it really only means to reduce queue times then it is definitely going way too far. I've had like 30 sec queue times and been placed a different role... I've also been placed just fine, someone dodged, THEN I got an off role. Why should dodges count toward queue times? Even factoring in the whole thing it was still less than 3 minutes.

I honestly feel like the auto fill feature is doing more harm than good when it's displacing people for seemingly no reason. I'd vote to not have be implemented until at LEAST the 3 min mark. We got used to 15 min queue times last season, and while that's obviously not ideal it really makes the auto fill seem like a purely negative feature.

Also, I know parties of 4 are disabled in Flex since they feared not enough Solo players, but I'm confused as to why it launched that way. Was it just better to assume there wouldn't be enough solo participation rather than run the risk of complaints for queue times? Seems odd to me to run the solution before you even know the problem exists.

Finally, I was wondering if anyone could share their thoughts about being able to give someone skin shards in hextech crafting. I think I've seen others say it could be abused. Does anyone know how? I got a Soulstealer Vayne shard and although that's pretty epic, my friend would appreciate it even more. It's a shame I can't give it to him.

Thanks for your time!