I do see your point about identical characters but i think the praises and positive feedback are more toward how the overall design is without taking its creativity into account.
Creativity is important yes but take a look at anime characters or the usual standards we have in video games.many,many ( i cant stress this enough) MANY characters look the same, same style, same elements.cat girl with fluffy tail and seductive personality comes to mind or "heavy" armors that cover everything but cleavage or good looking dude with 6 pack and massive muscles.seriously how did Darius went from a teenager with a fairly slim figure into a dude with massive muscle build in that short period of time? (warriors dont have THAT kind of muscle build as far as historical images go)
but people still do find it enjoyable to look at and watch. another example? things like spiderman movies , batman movies, when i look at them i see the exact same things being repeated over and over and people still pay to see these movies, its not something i would enjoy or understand why they enjoy it but as long as they do and i still get my fair share of creative characters why not?
i mean it was pretty disappointing for me when i saw Xayah and Rakan, then came Kayn, and then Star Guardians its purely just my personal taste that i didn't like them, because i enjoy creativity more than anything else.and then suddenly Ornn came along and it just blew me off so im good.
going a bit off topic what about story creativity? Darius comic had the usual "i had a loved one in my past we were happy and all that until the world separated us" something we've seen thousands of times but then came Nami comics which was very sweet.
if we wanna only talk about creative female designs i cant argue the "these characters like Taliyah already exist" card cause i think your argument is that Riot is not trying ANYMORE like they losing their creativity? for me its too early to judge on that because Xayah and Eve are the only recent female releases.
but i do hate to admit that the recent overall designs has been a bit of a let down for me, considering how it use to be in recent years.but as long as others are happy with it i can sit and wait for my turn.
sorry for wall of text i just wanted to give you a fair discussion here without down voting you blindly.