Is Overwatch becoming a stale game due to poor design choices?

Overwatch has been a staple game to the Blizzard name since it's release in May of 2016, with thousands of players worldwide playing daily. Being touted as the next greatest game for eSports, with competitive Overwatch being played almost every month now in major tournaments, it might be time to realize from a critical perspective what has actually changed since release.

Since it's conception, there has only been 17 Major patches to the game. 6 of which was holiday or timed only events. These events although may be fun when playing, add very little to the substance of the game. They add in time limited content such as skins and other cosmetics, which add no game play to the base game. Holiday events are made only to capitalize on the loot crate system. 

 Next is the addition of 4 new characters, with about 4 months between each release. From a time perspective, this is a fair amount of time for design, conceptualization, playtesting, and implementation. We don't want Blizzard to be releasing a new character every month as that would destabilize the game too much. Of these 4 new heroes, 2 have been offense, 1 a support, and 1 was a tank. Is this where the problem comes in? It is one of the problems, as of the new characters that have been released only 1 has been consistent in usage in both public and professional games. That would be the support Ana, as her kit adds both a unique and fun experience to play, as well as implements a high skill cap that rewards players for good play. Blizzard had released her in a state that was extremely powerful for current standards of the game, which changed how people played in the following months. This is a good change, as the meta had been stuck in the same state since competitive was released punishing players that didn't conform to playing the same pool of 8 heroes. 

Since the release of Ana, Blizzard has consistently released under powered heroes that see little to no viable play in competitive or public matches, as the current cast of heroes fulfills the same purpose and does a better job at it. They are afraid of the same response that would happen from the release of Ana. As the game stands now, of the 25 heroes the developers make the game only have 1/3 of the hero pool viable for optimal play. This doesn't make for a rewarding experience when your favorite play style is either dismissed by the community or developers because it doesn't fit the 1/3 standard. This leaves only the same heroes since day 1 viable with one or two of the 8 viable heroes swapping out each competitive season due to developers believing it is better to make the hero objectively worse instead of re balancing the game around that hero's kit.

This style of balancing allows for a stale meta game that stays discouraged, and with addition of timed only content only encourages play during events.

Post what you think in the comments if you play overwatch!