As of right now runes are way too expensive in general. A full rune page typically costs more than two champions at the highest price, and they are definitely too expensive for new players to buy and set up. The masteries system is stupid too because you can only get full masteries after level 30 which is awful considering there are still new players to think about. We need an updated system for these things.
I don't think people appreciate enough just how cost efficient tier 1 and tier 2 runes are. Tier 2 runes are 80% as effective as tier 3 runes but a mark/seal/glyph will only cost 35 IP. It's easy to compete in ranked with tier 2 runes (although tier 3 will of course always be better) because those 2 armor, 3 mr, 3/4 ad etc. are pretty much irrelevant. So f2p players who want to spend most of their IP on champions have a good alternative. F2p players who want to do as well as they can in ranked can still buy some general use rune pages and buy fewer champs instead.
Riot also has to earn some money and people wanting to be a perfectionist with runes is one of the ways they do it. It's their right.
To the point of masteries, until level 30 you're just learning the game anyways. Unlocking masteries as you go along makes it somewhat interesting. I don't see what the problem is.
