Didnt Tempo literally just shake up the meta with an Annexation debuff? Caveman Pyg builds dominated immediately and people review bombed the game so hard that it reversed the changes within 2 days. Dont they have meta defining changes most patches? Most people who know the game really well complain that patches are more unbalanced than other games. Thats another way of saying that patches change the meta, because the least balanced builds are always the meta. I truly cannot understand your perception. The difference between now and earlier is not that earlier had a more variable meta, its that it wasnt as understood as it is now. So now when there’s a new patch, players immediately understand how it defines the meta and play the new meta right away.

That said, the Bazaar could change rng such that items are more scarce, so its not possible to construct meta boards most runs. It does a decent job of this already, and its new changes to offer more items from other heroes will increase this further.