[{quoted}](name=Busty Demoness,realm=NA,application-id=yrc23zHg,discussion-id=8Q0c8iiX,comment-id=0001,timestamp=2018-07-30T04:34:01.336+0000)
The successes of the new system do not outweigh the massive failures it also brought.
For example, they're impossible to balance properly.
No, they aren't. I'd say calling them impossible to balance properly is incredibly shortsighted and ignorant, especially when the vast majority of runes are balanced and even the 'unbalanced ones' throughout all of Runes Reforged have already been balanced with little exception.
Most champions cannot use more than 2 keystones and even fewer can use keystones from different trees effectively.
I'm going to take just the champions who have names starting with A for this, because it illustrates how wrong you are pretty easily.
Aatrox: 2 viable keystones mid, 3 viable keystones top. All are in different trees.
Ahri: 4 viable keystones, covering 3 different trees.
Akali: 1 viable keystone mid, 3 viable keystones top. All are in different trees.
Alistar: 2 viable keystones, both in the same tree.
Amumu: 3 viable keystones, covering 2 different trees.
Anivia: 4 viable keystones, covering 3 different trees.
Annie: 4 viable keystones, covering 2 different trees.
Ashe: 3 viable keystones, all in the same tree.
Aurelion Sol: 2 viable keystones, covering 2 different trees.
Azir: 3 viable keystones, covering 2 different trees.
So already we have a whopping 2 (4 if you count mid akali but not top akali and mid aatrox but not top aatrox) champions with only 1-2 viable keystones, and only 2 champions 'locked' to a single tree. The only ones locked are a pure support tank, and a pure autoattack based adc. I think this illustrates how wrong your point is, what with most champions following this same pattern of having multiple viable keystones in different trees.
Additionally, previous runes actually encouraged customization. While there were staple runes for all champions, almost all champions could viably use other runes for varying playstyles and complimenting them.
You say this every thread, which amazes me because of how blatantly wrong it is and was. Previous runes were incredibly expensive, rune pages were incredibly expensive and required, and every champion had 2-4 rune pages which were identical to almost every other champion in that class. ADC's took AD reds, AS quints, MR blues, and then either Flat health or flat armor Yellows. The only decision or customization that wasn't blatantly wrong was in yellows, and that was swapping between health or armor.
Going a mage? You took AP Quints, magic pen/hybrid pen reds, AP/MR/Scaling CDR blues, flat health/flat armor yellows. The only meaningful decision was between AP/Scaling cdr, as champ choice dictated the reds and matchup dictated yellows (and if it was a scary magic damage matchup, blues).
There was no real customization, especially compared to Runes Reforged which allows you to do blatantly stupid shit still if you really want to 'break the meta' for your cool new playstyle of purposefully nerfing yourself.
The only notable successes was removing a gate to ranked play and making runes fully available to everyone. Everything else has simply been a balance nightmare from day 1 and Riot knows this.
Notable successes: lower barrier to entry. Significantly more actual choice (Conquerer vs PTA vs Grasp for Bruisers as an example). Less disguised trap choices (AD reds + AS quints vs AS reds and AD quints or AD yellows/blues for instance). More impactful choices that matter, and change how you play game to game.
I eagerly await you telling me I'm wrong and old runes were fantastic and had such meaningful, amazing customization and choice because you had 27 choices you could pick the wrong stats for and fuck up instead of 6.