It's great that you were there when LoL first launched because you would also know how LoL actually gets constant updates patch after patch at a much faster rate than HotS and even if a champion comes out that is ridiculously OP you can just ban them. Guess what you can't do in HotS that you can do in basically every MOBA? Ban champions/heroes. Even in competitive play you see teams crippling the other team in hero select because of this flaw. You want to complain about the store in LoL and yet at least there is actually a ridiculously huge pool of digital goods to choose from and buy in LoL. There is something in there that will appeal to someone somewhere. The only money I've spent on HotS was purchasing the Sylvanas bundle. Christmas Jaina and a 30 day stim pack boost. You can say what you like but launching HotS with a bunch of goofy and sloppy skins and then trying to sell mounts by saying they're going to be removed from the cash shop soon is a clear indicator that there is no demand for a lot of their current digital goods. Quite frankly most of the Master skins are better than the skins that can be purchased with cash and that's just sad because I enjoy opening my wallet and investing into video games.
There is a lot of reasons LoL continues to reign supreme by being the most popular online PC game. It's Riot that has driven eSports growth and that hype has now trickled down onto other competitive games. Before LoL eSports weren't relevant in any other country beside Korea just look at how many people play LoL and Dota 2 and look the prize pools. Valve has also come a long way by being at a nice second place with Dota 2 and has equally pushed eSports to a whole new level with a prize pool reaching almost $18 million dollars for a video game tournament and CS:GO rapidly growing in popularity as well.
I'm surprised at how clueless you are since you yourself pretend to be an expert on the history of how MOBAs have developed but maybe you're forgetting it was Blizzard that was on the sidelines this entire time while Riot pushed and pushed eSports even when it wasn't actually making them any profit. It was Blizzard that didn't adapt SC2 to be more accessible and that's why SC2 has seen a huge decline even in the cradle of eSports Korea. It's Blizzard that didn't see the potential in investing heavily into eSports or grabbing Dota back when it was just a mod in Warcraft 3.
Even now in this day and age Blizzard has proven that HotS just wasn't important enough to them because instead of HotS built from the ground up after seeing LoL and Dota 2's massive success they decided that “Blizzard All-Stars” a simple mod for SC2 would be good enough to ship and sell to gamers. If you knew anything about video game development you would know that Blizzard knew by using the SC2 engine for HotS the game would be hacked and they just didn't give a shit. You actually think a company that does something so greedy and selfish like that deserves to have their game rated anything higher than a 6.5/10? I'm not going to just ignore this huge decision because it's something so critical that can't easily be reversed in the future. You may have pleased a bunch of the fanboys on here with your post but that's not really an incredibly hard feat to accomplish. I could go on /r/Wildstar/ right now and just ignore all the fuck ups NCSOFT has made and I'd get some reddit gold too. It doesn't change the actual facts and the reality of the dead game.
You can say whatever you like about LoL and Dota 2's matchmaking system but there is a reason ELO/MMR boosting business is booming in those games. It's not easy to climb the ladder unless you're actually good. You make comments like “I've seen people in Bronze who play like pros. I've seen people in Plat who play like they shouldn't be allowed to use a computer by themselves.” You've clearly shown you have no knowledge on either matchmaking system with what you just said. There are plenty of people who can be mechanically good at the game even at Bronze but still not be able to carry the game and/or cooperate with their team. There is a lot of psychology involved in getting better at an eSport. It's not just about “playing like a pro” at Bronze. People go on tilt and end up playing like total shit at Platinum because they think they're in “elo-hell.” People go on tilt no matter what ELO or MMR they are and some people never get to experience their true potential because they are toxic and constantly rage and AFK even though they are mechanically pretty good at the game. It's the people that are very good, stay calm, and calculate everything that climb the ladder in LoL and Dota 2 if you think otherwise I'd love for you to disagree with all the countless evidence out there such as good players getting to a professional ELO/MMR in a single day by winning almost every single match even with trolls, afkers, and disconnects on their team. While others spend weeks, months and even years slowly crawling their way up to the top.
In HotS the system is fucked up from the start. I don't understand how you could argue that HotS is transparent in it's system when it's the total opposite. Unlike LoL and Dota 2 where it's obvious who you are playing against and that everyone belongs where they are. In HotS a team that looks like this- 'Rank 5, 8, 8, 10, 12' will go up against a team like this 'Rank 20, 23, 30, 35, 55.' That's not transparent at all. Rank 1 is clearly being advertised by Blizzard as being the highest level of skill in the game itself and yet the numbers say otherwise. There is clearly a huge issue with the matchmaking in HotS that is severely ruining games and just to be clear. I never said I ignore the times when I win against a low ranking team. In fact I find those games to be boring and sad as well. My experience in Hero League so far has been stomp or get stomped and seeing as the forums have been spammed with this same exact complaint over and over since the game's launch is it really a surprise that it's really started to piss people off because Blizzard has only just now gotten around to patching Quick Match matchmaking?
The one thing I'll agree with what you've said is “fuck the matchmaking.” Dota 2 is an industry standard for new MOBAs. The client is the best in the business. The replay system is perfect. The spectator system is perfect. You can even watch Ti5 in client, control the camera and pay attention to whichever player you feel like watching. It's leaver system is the most polished leaver system I've seen in any MOBA. If someone quits the game is SAFE TO LEAVE after 5 minutes. It's simple. It works. It's less stressful than being forced to finish a game with no option of being able to surrender even under unfair circumstances. Like I said before and I'll say it again Dota 2 made all the heroes free and it's hosting an almost $18 million tournament. It's obvious that you don't need to sell heroes to have a successful F2P MOBA. The evidence is right there. Why would you as a consumer argue against this? There is no downside to you as a consumer by having every single hero unlocked. The only reason Riot can get away with it is because they launched before Dota 2 so they don't give a shit about what Valve does.