User blog comment:Ozuar/The Importance of Skill Order in League of Legends/@comment-5266525-20130328205809

You ask us if putting emphasis on a good skill ranking priority is good game design. I consider myself to have some pretty good experience there. Competitive video gaming at its core relies on players using different elements of a game in unique ways to create depth and interesting gameplay.

I learned this when I spent over a year discussing competitive Dead or Alive on forums during the run-up to DOA5. One of the new main mechanics of the game is the Critical Burst, a very powerful move which can set an opponent up for combos dealing over 50% health, but are very conditional to pull off. Very few characters had more than one of these and people were requesting some additional moves be added to improve variety, but one of the professional players on the forums quickly stepped in and quickly rebutted these claims. Ultimately, he said, if you introduce multiple equally good options, you actually stifle gameplay more than you create it. Not only does this remove any gameplay to be had in deciding which of your options would be most appropriate for the situation, but it also needlessly randomizes the defending side's response as every offensive option is equally valuable. Any variety you see in this is basically superficial, as at their core all options are the same damn thing.

Moral of thw story is that its actually these uneven options like skill ranking that creates a lot of the competitive depth in the game.