fiddle is designed to be a jungler with strong very long range(-ish) ambushing abilities.

If fiddle suddenly got melee range you probably who'd not notice a difference.
His entire damage kit is based around ultimate and drain and using fear and silence to prevent people from running while you drain them.
If you are playing fiddle like a Pro chances are you wont even get a chance to AA in betven spells.

i like never even auto attack when i play fiddle, i just smack them with fear and steal half of their hp bar

he has free sustain.

by forcing him to move into shorter ranged to last hit, it makes farming more dangerous to counteract his healing.

of course, fiddle is completely non-viable right now, but there was a time where he was completely broken.

It's actually tricky to recover with Drain in lane. A good opponent knows you have just self-rooted and will use the opportunity to harass or interrupt.

He is like Warwick in that his pre-6 ganks are likely to be unsuccessful against good players. Jungling is his best role, but he's not a top jungler.

now, yes. way back when, less so.
fid has a lot of baggage.

???

how is it unlikely.

pop out of some bush at level 3
silence > fear > drain > hope the one laning is paying attention after the 6 pings you did.

jungle fiddle only sucks if you focus on his clear speed by pouring all the points into drain which will help you kill dragon faster but wont help much with the lanes till significant advantage is gained and in theory dragon is guarded at all times anyways

(he used to be able to kill dragon at level 3 at one point, I dont know if he still can)

Mid is tough because of the lane width. Bot will be warded. Top may or may not be warded.

Without vision, nobody experienced stands near brush. And nobody experienced pushes the lane without knowing where the jungler is.

Fear is low range, low duration at early ranks, and Fiddle has no gap closer prior to his ult. That's why successful ganks before level 6 are unlikely.

define successful, you dont need a kill to succeed