Ball is a tank who does not demand respect

Ball's place in the meta seems a little contentious in the community right now. Personally, I believe this is because while Ball is still not good in the meta, he feels better to play, especially compared to earlier seasons.

Right now, I feel like Ball's biggest issue is none of his abilities demand respect. Every other tank has some sort of utility that forces the enemy team to respect them. You respect a Zarya push because she has bubble, you respect a Winston Dive because he has his shield, you respect a Doom engagement because he has his punch, etc etc.

Ball's utility is his grapple boop and piledriver. Not only do both those abilities require setup to use, but the utility they provide is not respectable. The damage and knockback from boop is realistically easy to ignore, similar to the semi-airlock stun from piledriver, especially if the target of either ability is getting any form of consistent healing.

Tank's by their nature demand the attention of the entire team, and most tank's utility are built around that. An entire enemy team has to respect a Zar bubble, or a Winston shield, or a Doom punch. But the damage or knockback provided by grapple or piledriver? Those abilities do not demand respect from a team, and if anything you are actively putting yourself at a disadvantage when you try to use your utility as Ball against a team rather than an individual.

While it is frustrating tanks like Zarya or Reinhardt have abilities that let them get value for simply existing, I do not want Ball's skill ceiling to be lowered. I do however think his utility needs to be expanded. Other tanks can do Ball's job just as well, far easier, and more reliably. Currently Ball's only saving grace is his massive skill ceiling and hyper mobility, the former of which a majority of players can't abuse, and the latter while incredibly useful for repositioning into advantageous situations, is not a reliable tool you can use to get solo value. Ball's mobility allows him to get into advantageous situations very easily, it does not however let him personally create those situations, so when those situations aren't happening because of someone else, you are out of luck.

Ball needs some form of utility that lets him demand the same level of respect as the other tanks. Currently, beyond his mobility, there is no real "reason" to pick Ball that another tank could not also provide.