in a way it adds skill, but is also removes skill. it's hard to explain.
preface : consider this, most of the people having this strong opinion on consumables are pro or semi-pro players that have 1500+hours in the game, so our take on the competitive side of arena i think has a little merit compared to say a gold player with 200 hours
You could argue that X situation A happens but then with Y item now B happens. That's a valid point, but that's also what we don't want. As much as "skill" is required on what items and when to use them, it totally shifts some champions pros and cons, easiest example being lucie, she can theoretically get "get out of jail" free cards, that completely changes how the rotation happens. You could argue that it's 1 more CD to keep track of : more skill.
Fair
ut in reality once we master them it'll just be different flowcharts but with a completely shifted flowchart for everyone. What does it really add? From our limited opinion right now basically not much. Our opinions are biased by the fact most of us have been playing since day 1, we know all the flowcharts and matchups by heart, and most people do no like the FEEL of the items thus discouraging us from actually wanting to learn to use them. It's not so much about the skill and whatever, but the FEEL of it. I know we can't compared to super smash but it DOES kinda feel like smash with items in the way that it's sparkly, its big effects, its a game changer, but it doesnt FEEL like it belongs in such a high skill-cap competitive game. It's basically "cheese", and cheese is mostly frowned upon in ALL competitive games. Sure it works but it sucks to play against, it can be interesting to watch but only for so long. The real skill is still going to come down from your knowledge and cooldown management, in a much more chaotic environment.
When we asked about "major meta changing patches", we simply wanted tweaks that would make less desirable champions better, and tone down the "OP" comps.



This literally changes the game at it's core, everything we've learned and mastered feel less relevant now that there are variable that completely negate some champion's weaknesses.
For most cases people will keep on playing what they know and integrate these variables into their mains.
You're talking about lower rank players, obviously adding multiple new variables will make the game seem much more complicated, but with the possibility of cheese, people are just going to abuse broken stuff to GC.
Everyone has valid points in this debate, but I think the biggest one we have to focus on is the core gameplay. And this shifts the game's core gameplay in a pretty significant way. Humans don't like change, so I do believe people are overreact a bit with not enough information to back it up, but when >95% of pro players say something doesn't feel right, it should raise a flag.