The current state of Wukong

Over the last few years a handful of champions have had trouble finding an identity in the game, we've seen this with Swain, for example, not only thematically, but also in-game, he was supposed to be a midlaner but ended up being played top to bully melee champions, so we know that it's not because a champion can be viable that he has an identity, obviously. A champion that I've been wanting to main lately is Wukong: right now I don't think Wukong is that bad, he definitely doesn't fit the meta that well right now but he has potential and isn't as outdated as some other champions, but I still want to talk about him, because he sure has identity issues of his own.

First off: Wukong's kinda supposed to be a bruiser/fighter type character, that snowballs very well, right? But right now, he's being played more like a Kha'Zix-ish assassin who goes invisible and walks up to the backline to assassinate them, than what he's supposed to be played as: a diver/fighter, a good proof of this is his Passive, which gives him armor based on the amount of ennemy champions standing around him, I've mentionned this to people before, but this passive was clearly made to synergize with his ultimate, giving him tank stats as a reward for ulting alot of people, but now you just kinda get to the backline, assassinate a carry, ult for the knockup, then stop ult to disengage if needed or follow up on someone. but it still can be helpful. But yeah, now Wukong is built and played more like a lethality assassin, which makes sense: his Q fits well with lethality, and I have to admit, lethality Wukong feels fun to play, and really brings out the players who can truly use his W well. But then this creates, albeit small, discrepancies in his kit, and that's where I ask the question:

What should Wukong be? I mean, thematically speaking (because we know how lately Riot loves making lore the focus of a champion's kit, which is super cool in my opinion) Wukong is the Monkey King, a user of Wuju style, and someone who wants to be at the top, so from that it would make sense for him to be a duelist, I'd think. But that's the problem with Wukong...

See, anyone reading this who has played alot of other MOBAs knows this: the whole ''Sun Wukong'' idea is super saturated, I mean let's list games that have Wukong, the Monkey King or a character that is obviously related to him or inspired from him:

-League of Legends -DOTA -Smite -Heroes of Newerth -Strife -Bloodline Champions -Rise of Immortals

and alot more, in some of these games it's not necessarily Wukong but sometimes a related character (Axell, in Rise of Immortals, for example) or have similar playstyle and concept.

Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, is, and I know how important his story is to alot of people's hearts, especially in Asia, a very unoriginal character to have in a MOBA, and the thing here is that you can't really rework him to be anything else than the Monkey King, because that's what he's been HEAVILY inspired from, I mean it's kinda what he is, and the Monkey King always wields his signature staff, making him a melee fighter by nature, and that's just one of many examples of things that you can't really change about Wukong because it's in his nature: he was an already existing character, the Monkey King.

So Wukong is stuck being Sun Wukong, ok, so it's not that terrible, Sun Wukong is badass.

But then what about non-thematically? What about what he is now instead of what he could or could not be? Ok, let's dive in:

Top lane: Wukong is very far from the best toplaner right now, he kinda gets bullied by alot of characters, and right now bruisers are just not that good top lane, except for a few champions, mostly ones that deal alot of true damage or that are the bullies, like Juggernauts. Point being, Wukong won't stand too well against alot of champions (which sucks, he's the Monkey King after all). He also gets outsustained quite hard by ALOT of champions.

Jungle: Jungle Wukong is what I've been seeing lately, it's also what I'm playing, the thing is sometimes it gets a bit obvious that Wukong wasn't made to be primarily a jungler: his clear is unhealthy, he gets very easily counter-jungled, his ganks Pre-6 aren't that good, due to his lack of CC, I mean pre-6 Xin Zhao does everything Wukong does but way better, post-6 both start building and playing a bit differently, though.

The thing Wukong does well is snowball, most of you, especially readers from Plat and under, where Wukong is at his best, most likely have played a game where a Wukong could one shot all of your squishies and then disrupt you all, and do all sort of cool juking and all that. If Wukong gets fed, he becomes hella scary if you're a squishy, especially due to him being able to build Mobi Boots (not the best item, but still), and Youmuu's, and compensate for his short invisibility by being very fast, thus just walking through your frontline directly coming for you. A good Wukong can be scary.

But here's the thing, here's, in my opinion, one of Wukong's biggest flaws: while Wukong gets outclassed by ALOT of his peers, wether he's top or jungle, he's NOT bad or outdated enough to warrant a full rework, BUT, just straight buffing a champion who is known to easily delete any squishy entirely from the game, can be very dangerous.

Also, when I said he isn't outdated enough, I meant, he still has more complex mechanics than alot of champions of around the same age, he's aged pretty well, and his W gives him a decent outplay potential, and highers his skill ceiling.

What I might be expecting, is something like we've recently seen with Xin Zhao, a relatively small scale rework, just to help him fit modern League a bit more.

What are your thoughts about Wukong? I'm asking people from all elo, and if possible people at Riot Games, like I said, right now in my opinion, the problem with Wukong isn't that he's complete unplayable garbage, far from that, it's that he gets outclassed by most other champions, and doesn't have an identity while being himself inspired from an unoriginal concept, which shackles him to the general rules of what Sun Wukong should be, making him a thematically non-versatile champion.

Thank you for your time and remember to be respectful in the comments.