I'm not entirely sure why they shelved Magma Chamber. However, for the other two maps (Twisted Treeline, Dominion), they suffer from imbalances largely due to how the champions interact with each other. There's been a couple of cases where champions got nerfed because they were pretty OP in other modes, and for the most part, was viewed as unfair to those that are SR fanboys (me included, even though I was unaffected).
There's also the problem of splitting up the pool of players waiting for a match, but I think Riot can afford this =P For usability though, they'll want to tweak their matchmaking witchcraftery so that people can opt to get matched up for multiple modes instead of queuing up for one mode at a time.
Pause function exists in tournament realm currently, but I don't know if they have plans for introducing it to the public at large. Imo, it's probably not the best idea, since the target audience is a lot broader than the other MOBAs, and some people might abuse pausing so that someone who "needs to go to work soon" will have to forfeit the game. Who knows though, I hope I'm wrong.
As for the meta, Riot has been trying to break it up for a while now, with not much luck. They have the same sentiment as you do, as well as the desire to keep things varied and fresh (replayability).
Pendragon stated that they would not do this. He claims that people would become more "adversarial" and it would cause a more negative experience. Think about Xbox Live. On the other hand, if you're in a situation where negative shyttalking wouldn't happen, you're probably playing in a premade anyways, and you already have your VOIP set up.
Replay system is apparently coming after spectator mode is solid and stable. Given that they developed their engine from scratch, that could be a while =/ I don't know if they have any plans with the LoL Replay people or not, it's not my place to say.
I agree with the skin preview. They're getting to the point where a single picture just doesn't do them justice, and you really want to know exactly what bells and whistles you're getting before you shell out RP. An infamous example of a spectacular failure is Red Baron Corki.
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