User blog comment:Danz The Pure/Item upgrade paths from weakest to greatest/@comment-3308937-20140319183024

Build paths are a pretty big balancing point Riot uses when it comes to items and it helps to differentiate items between early, mid and late-game.

I'd rather see new mid-point items created, like Riot did for Infinity Edge when they made by replacing B.F. with, or recipes changed around to include more mid-tier items for big items like Frozen Mallet and Infinity Edge.

Thankfully, that is what they're doing with the new items and item changes coming to the PBE (VPBE).