disagree.
2018 was when the dodgy balance decisions really started. 2017 was pretty good for balance to me, but that’s definitely because it was pre-‘flankers complaining that supports get to play the game and thus the supports getting a cleaver taken to them because how dare Brig exist (release Brig needed nerfs, post-nerf Brig did not) or Mercy stand slightly out of the way during an ult so she wouldn’t die, something everyone did but was only bad when Mercy did it and oops we made an unkillable moth that people would either not bother trying to shoot at or waste Cass and Soldier ults at the same time to kill her’.
and like the other person said, everything is decided by balance so you can’t pretend balance didn’t have anything to do with anything.