... Okay. Let's look at that, then. The "thought process" context for every Annie change in the 2014 season:
Patch 4.1:
Annie’s a terrifying kid to play against in the early phases of the game – even before Tibbers joins the party– mostly due to her long duration stun at level 1. With these changes, we want to give Annie’s lane opponents some more room to breathe against her early threat, but we’ve given Tibbers more late game playtime to compensate. This should lessen a bit of Annie’s power without incinerating her overall strengths.
Patch 4.4 (emphasis mine):
We like Annie's versatility, but some of her base damage is too high for how she's currently being used. Our goal is to introduce more interesting choices in Annie's kit (particularly on that Disintegrate buff) as we looked for ways to buff her late game scaling when she builds more traditional AP items.
Aaand that's it. So where in there does it say they don't want Annie as a support? Because the implication of the bolded statement is that they don't have a specific problem with her being played as a support, but rather that her damage as a support was overbearing. Let's try the same for Alistar, yeah?
Patch 4.12 (note, this was for a buff, because Ali was underpicked and needed some love):
We really want to bring Alistar back up as a support, but our challenge has been to make sure he doesn't also take up his crown of jungling cow king from the days of old. Access to a 'mini' Malphite Unstoppable Force at level 2 (via his Headbutt + Pulverize combo), combined with guaranteed tower dives and the ability to punt people away from safety makes for a pretty oppressive gank-train from the jungle. We want to give Ali the things he needs to succeed but, like we did with Maokai, we also want to make sure he's in a healthy position to do so. There's a little concern that having 70% damage reduction at level 1 Unbreakable Will might make Alistar a little too good at tower diving (even as a support), but we'll see how these changes affect him first.
Patch 4.15 (emphasis again mine):
When we buffed Alistar back in 4.12, our big concern for competitive play was that he would be too strong in the jungle, where his terrifying level 2 ganks would obliterate all semblance of lane safety on the map. Didn't happen! He just went to terrorize top lane instead.
Jokes aside, it's not a bad thing when a champion finds a new position to play on the map, but often times we'll see their strength being used in inhibitive ways (hello Soraka, hello Lulu). We're not taking large steps against Alistar for now, but we did identify one very obnoxious aspect of his strength where he could get a free high-damage trade by Headbutting his opponent while also sneaking in a basic attack. When combined with next-attack items like Sheen, it's easy to see how uninteractive Alistar can get, especially when he puts the opponent in a position where they can't retaliate in a meaningful way. We still think Alistar's in a very strong place after his buffs, but will continue to monitor him for the future.
And I don't see anything about taking him away from top lane and forcing him to support. I do see them trying to avoid letting him back in the jungle, but from the horror stories I've heard of how toxic he was to play against when he was, I don't imagine that's a bad thing.
The closest thing said about "putting them back in their roles" was the phrase, "We really want to bring Alistar back up as a support," but in context it's more of a commentary on how he was underpicked as a support - and at the time, wasn't being picked anywhere else, either.
So, yes. I read the patch notes. Usually a couple times, to make sure I understand the goals before I even look at the changes themselves.
