You guys realise

The reason champions like and get picked so often, also has to do with just their design?

When I first started playing league, I literally only bought Yasuo because he was a cool samurai guy/wanderer. That was cool to me, so I bought him and I decided to learn him. This isn't a unique case, either, most everyone I've ever met who bought him did so because they thought he was cool.

The same goes for Zed, he's an awesome armored ninja who uses shadows. How is that not cool? And Master Yi is like an assassin swordsman who has sword boots.

You want to talk about pick rate, you need to factor that in. Are they strong? Fuck yeah they are. Could they use some tweaks, lord knows they do. But that discussion can't happen on these boards, where literally anyone who runs into a good player will immediately come on to moan and groan about how broken these champions are.