I'm not thinking of anything drastic. But I think it is odd that no one EVER gets anything over 10K in a competative game. At least not in my experience. I have gotten mageslayer, but never any of the really strong artifact items. And I think it is a strange design choice to have items that can never really be used in the game.
In my opinion, the higher tier items are not designed nor implemented to be able to be used every game - they're the "End Game" items for a reason; namely, they're designed so that it moves the game along faster. If the game reaches a point where your team members can afford Ring of the All Father without stacking a Team Mate, for example, it's probably nearly a stalemate game - the Ring of the All Father helps break that stalemate and allows the game to end without dragging it out past the 6 hour mark. If the items were supposed to be attainable in every match, the maximum an item would cost is 10,000gc.
I do not think a nuke fest is the right call at all. But perhaps ocassionally a long and competative game should used those items. RIght now that is not the case. Also, the rate would change for everyone, meaning that while stronger offensive items would be available so would hp and armor items. I think the fights would remain proportionally the same.
Unfortunately I believe you're wrong here, the fights do not remain proportionally the same. Obscenitor made mention of this in a thread some time ago, and after some investigation I came to the same conclusion as he; fights become significantly shorter as the game progresses, and once Artifacts have been reached they're mostly measued in 4-5 second bursts.
If the fights remained proportionally the same, as you mentioned, as the items essentially cancel one another out, there would be in fact no reason to change the default settings - all you're doing is artifically dragging the game out and making it far easier for less cooridinated teams to compete - High Towers, for example, protects weaker teams right up until level 10 or so, allowing them to stack items and attempt to brute force their more cooridinated opponents down. It artifically lengthens the games, while not providing a significantly better experience - the weaker team still loses, it just takes them longer to do so.
Keep in mind I'm not saying this style of game is bad - it's just not where I find the game to be at it's best, and I personally believe the default settings are pretty much perfect. Changing the settings allows the game to cater to everyone - altering the default settings to mirror a particular set of settings allows the game to cater only to the people who like that settings configuration. Host the games the way you prefer to play them, and people will still play - it's always good to play something a little different, however I have to oppose changes to the default settings, sorry.