I'm one of the people who worry about Lore a lot--I really liked and I really miss the old lore, and I was sad when I found the judgements were missing and the new character lore was changed to exclude the reason behind joining the league. The lack of lore has really been what's been eating at me in LoL, that one thing that kept this game from being absolutely brilliant rather than just pretty damn good--something it once had, and did really damn well, but decided to give up for some reason that eluded me. And for the longest time, I just tried to silently ignore the lore, fill in the gaps myself, and hope that someday things would change even if I knew they wouldn't.

But then, when Riot introduced Vi, and the new Twisted Treeline, I had something of a revelation. I realized that the Lore might not be as forsaken as I once thought...

See, the unique taunts and character interactions Vi has, and the different things the Altars say when they're captured by Shadow Island Champions seems to indicate in my eyes that the lore isn't dead, but rather is headed in a subtler, more character-focused direction. It's more about the individual champions and their stories and less about the political going-on's of each city-state and the world the champions inhabit. And you know, that actually makes a lot of sense to me, and the more i think about it the more I realize this might be the best way to approach the lore, given the nature of the game.

Consider who we, the players are, in the League of Legends world: We're Summoners. And as summoners, we're the ones that hold all the political sway, we're the ones that win or lose matches and shape the political state of the world. That's OUR job: all the champions have to do is worry about each other and kill things really good. Since our job, in-character, is to shape the politics, it also makes sense that we need to use our imagination in determining the stakes of our matches, or why a champion might have joined the league (since we have to imagine the state of the world), or what we're fighting for. They can hardly do an Ionia Vs Noxus match every week.

...is it perfect? No. Do I still currently prefer the old lore? Hell yeah. But at least i think I understand what they're aiming for now... and I'll hold out hope that, if they're not going to go back to the old ways, they'll get good enough at what they're doing now that it becomes more obvious and it feels less like I'm trying to find some light at the end of this dark, loreless tunnel.

...also, i hope this made as much sense as it made in my head, because words are hard.

I was in pretty much the same boat as you and Vi really boosted my confidence in Riot's lore team. It's also really perfect cause I main Caitlyn and my friend loves top/jungle Vi so we always get the best of Piltover buff.