As far as obtaining cards, I completely agree that buying singles is better than buying and opening packs. My idea for buying packs is mainly for SPS airdrops and potentially reselling the packs for higher prices later on. In other words, the packs are for investment, not for opening.
I do have the option of opening those packs for the cards inside of them, but that will only happen if the market conditions turn out to be very different from what I expect them to be.

You make a great point about purchasing singles to play with on the ladder and specifically obtaining levelled summoners, and that is something that everyone should be keeping in mind while deciding how to spend they funds this release - thank you for taking the time to comment!