Card design, powercreep, & card-making

[Summer Darj 292]

As some of you should know by now, I have been in the card making hobby for a long time now, both making cards and reviewing them, and to this day I still feel I'm learning new things so wouldn't say I'm a "pro" at it or anything. I do hope I am considered good at it at least.
That said, lately I feel I have come across a block, or a wall, not sure how to call it, when it comes to card-making. I will start by stating that YGO is not a fair game, at least not this current format. If you observe Salamangreats, Orcusts, Thunder Dragon, Subterror Guru, and before them, Altergeist and Sky Strikers, things have gone down to "if you go first, open with 3+ negation boards, or blanket stuns like floodgates, Azathot/King of Calamities; if you go second, have enough power to break through the negations, or the right hand-traps or answers". In other words, you got to have power cards or interactions to make an impact.
Now, how is this related to card-making? Well, from my perspective, this powercreep makes the border between good/fair design and impactful/relevant cards much more wide, to the point that I struggle with finding that sweet spot of "well designed cards that also have impact". For example, on one hand, you come up with a fair card, but since fair cards don't win games currently, it wouldn't have an impact and then it could be deemed as not good enough. On the other hand, you come with an overly strong card that by design is not fine (e.g. too many pluses, easy set-up, etc.) but would still have an impact in the game due to its power, and yet without breaking anything. So does the powercreep of a format justify a card being overly strong or arguably unfair for the sake of impact? Should I adjust my reviewing standards to the powercreep, or disregard it and strive for balance? As I said, lately I struggle with reviews because I will stumble upon cards that may be questionable balance-wise, but due to the powercreep they may actually be acceptable, mostly because the format is so rough that it can take it.
I want to note that I do have stumbled upon a few cards that IMO reach that sweet spot, so it's not impossible to find it, but damn, I would say I have only seen like 3 cards like that in the past ~4 months. Regardless, my bigger question is if I should be more open to overly strong cards.

I would like to read and discuss the impressions and opinions of other YGO players and card-makers on this matter.

Edited March 6, 2019 by Darj