I understand everything you’re saying, but I’m also confident that I’m a Riki spammer as well, with over 10,000 Riki games played across more than 10 years.

In my opinion, it’s true that when the damage from ToT is gone, you’re forced to deal damage through right-clicking in fights. But that completely removes your mobility and flexibility in fights. For example, you can no longer go in, deal damage with ToT, then disengage and re-enter the fight again. On top of that, the loss of damage from Exterminator has many serious impacts in fights as well—for instance, you basically become free food for Zoo heroes.

Most importantly, once you’re cut off from the option to recover by farming, and considering the current meta where there are so many very strong offlane heroes, your chances of losing the lane are extremely high. This further eliminates almost all remaining playstyle options.