League will never be balanced. https://media.giphy.com/media/8VLgtJqaxIlhu/giphy.gif?noredirect It's impossible to balance something with so many variable.
Not to mention everyone has their own opinion on what "balanced" even entails.
I was thinking that, too. The Season 5 Tank-meta was one of the most "balanced" states the game has ever seen, but a lot of people hated it because their mains sucked against tanks.
There's like 5 thousand champions. No one will be viable all the time. Sad but true. I just want a meta where HALF the champs out there are viable, that's all. Where there are more than two or three viable choices for each role. Where if I pick a non meta underdog I have a CHANCE... instead of getting utterly shit-stomped by the power picks.
Back in the day, every champ was at least a little viable, and goofy off-picks were things people did for fun. AP Xin Zhao. Mid lane Soraka. Top lane Taric. Full AP Malphite mid. These builds were silly and not as effective as the regular ones, but they were fun and you could sometimes catch the enemy unaware and win with them. TRY pulling anything goofy or fun like that out now. I've seen people rage at a player for picking AP Tristana. I've seen a troll int. feed because the mid laner picked Evelynn. I've even seen a person get ripped into by a 4 man premade because he dared to pick support Taric. TARIC IS AN ACTUAL SUPPORT. He was just considered a "weak" one at that point in time.
It's not even Riot's fault entirely. It's the players who are ruining this game.