I still say they need to implement a gold income transfer system for every leaver... The gold income is 16 gold every 10 seconds, but if someone leaves then that character is sitting there STILL getting the 16 gold every 10 seconds. Sure they MIGHT come back but odds are they normally don't. And even if they did it wouldn't be but a couple of seconds they miss out on. I'd rather play it safe then lose out on an entire game worth of gold going to someone who isn't helping what so ever.
The solution? When a player leaves the game for any reason have their gold income split between the rest of the people still playing. 16 gold every 10 seconds from 1 leaver splits into +4 gold every 10 seconds for the remaining players. Should the "Leaver" return then the gold income is then returned to that player. At least with this people will stand stand a minor chance 4v5 or even 3v5.