Round table

And I, like many others, have long since told these water artifacts to go f... themselves. And, in fact, I remember someone here on the forum arguing that they balance the game...

Water artifacts, as well as much other "junk" according to a portion of players, do indeed balance—but rather not the game, but the score balance between players. The game is balanced a priori. Balance relies on a fantasy picture of the world defined by the creature, where, for example, earth magic is stronger than all others (and many such series could be cited). Anyone criticizing this game balance tries to shift it in some other direction (like DD into water magic in VT). But that is already a different balance (for some reason striving toward equalization and reduction of variance), distinct from the author's, and consequently a different game. Balance is not equilibrium, but rather the ratio of something within a certain space. And attempts to idealize balance—to bring it to equilibrium—can be false, and it is not a fact that this will lead to an improvement in the situation. In fact, a more Balanced system is a dead system.
Nerfing water artifacts is not a problem, but it is a simplification. But wouldn't it be better to find a use for them—to implement playable water? For example, like this
like this