I can understand if RIOT has their priorities on improving detection and punishment of bad behavior and this may be why they've somewhat neglected positive behavior. But, they really do need to get to this in a timely manner. Too much focus on negativity will only get you so far and in the end may even encourage the milder forms of negative behavior. Players that don't understand what positive behavior is aren't going to reform because they see toxic behavior as normal. They don't even understand how to behave in a positive manner. They even think that if they spend money on the game, then they purchase the right to be toxic.
This is why implementing a system that identifies healthy behavior is actually a really big deal. Yeah, I can understand that maybe RIOT is worried if it's too easy to earn rewards for being positive or that smart players will figure out how to be get the rewards of being positive without really being deserving of it. But there needs to be a system in place that players feel is accessible and that makes them feel good about their healthy behavior.
Imagine this:
You finish a game, maybe you won, maybe you lost, but this message pops up on your screen that says, "Hey, Good Job! We've noticed that you haven't been reported in the past 10 games! Keep up the good work!"
And then some games later you get another popup and it says, "Hey, Great Work! We've noticed that you haven't been reported in the past 20 games!"
And so on. The thing is players need some sort of positive reinforcement. They need to know that their good actions have been noticed not just their bad actions. And it's really extra important for players that are borderline toxic to get this kind of positive reinforcement. Players that are always exceptionally positive are always going to be exceptionally positive and it's good to reward them for it, but players that are borderline toxic are the most important players to help and ideally help before they become toxic!
Players receive warnings after getting so many reports, but the system doesn't acknowledge them if they reform their behavior. They either live in fear that the system might report them, even though they are being nice, or they say "who cares; it doesn't mean anything anyway." Neither of these is good and this is why it is important to realize that spending too much time and energy on punishing negativity is a failure to acknowledge and reinforce positive behavior. There are many ways to do this. Some ways are better than others but it is important to have something in place that the common player feels is accessible, achievable, doable, reasonable. Acknowledging lack of negativity is a good start to that because it is the most easily achievable result - even for borderline toxic players.
