It's Fine If Things Are Weak Or Low-Tier
I always see this idea from players that "if it isnt high tier, it is automatically garbage and awful", and Im going to heavily disagree. A lot of DbD's perks have their own uses and situations which they fill in, even if some are rather niche. And more often than not, it was the niche perks that won me games more than anything else (looking at you Gearhead, my beloved).
I think people kind of forget that the entire point of a game is to have fun. A lot of perks in DbD are really fun to use. Just to name a few... Blast Mine into Repressed Alliance because it's funny, or Self-Preservation into a flashlight save because holy crap Self-Preservation is a heavily underrated perk. Nemesis (perk) into Dark Devotion to jumpscare survivors, or just running around with Mad Grit against people bodyblocking.
Variety is the spice of life, I would recommended trying out some more stuff, for both sides, it can really be fun.
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There's memey and there's straight garbage, though. Like, I respect the pebble. I'm a dedicated Autodidact user and I've been having tons of fun with a Brutal Strength/Fire Up kick build lately, and I've been meaning to try out the new Dark Devotion (that plus Nemesis is a great idea, by the way.) Today I ran into a killer who was running Coulrophobia and Huntress Lullaby together and that made for some insane skill checks. But that doesn't excuse things like Predator, Furtive Chase, Buckle Up, Up the Ante, or Beast of Prey that have no good uses whatsoever. Or Calm Spirit and Technician that actively nerf the player using it for a fairly weak buff. Some stuff really does need to be buffed or reworked. And the 'abandon team, wait for hatch' perks like Left Behind, Sole Survivor, and the upcoming Low Profile can go die in a fire, because while they do have a use, that use encourages players to be horrible teammates. Kind of same with Knockout and Third Seal; they encourage killers to play in a way that's an all-around miserable experience, and that's not healthy.
I would also say that a perk that does a job worse than another perk is still bad and needs buffs just because there's just no reason to run it over its better cousin. See Remember Me and No Way Out, or Solidarity/Reactive Healing/Self-Care/Pharmacy versus We'll Make It/Botany Knowledge/Inner Healing/Circle of Healing.
While I do agree that some perks can definitely be buffed (I never said things shouldnt be reworked or buffed), I still feel like even niche perks can fit into weird builds if you make them. Predator, one you mentioned, is actually a prime example. It's really good on Spirit, and I normally use it over Stridor just to have more accurate tracking (and since Iron will is basically dead you dont need Stridor anyways).
But there is also no reason to not buff something if it's weak in its current role and could do better. And if anything, as long as it won't make it overpowered, it should be buffed. By having everything be good in one niche or another, it gives more incentive to use a wide range of options.
It's more that if you aren't running top tier stuff, you are less likely to have a good time.
For example, had a challenge to open 3 chests. I take off OTR, BT, DS and SB to put on Plunderer's, Ace in the Hole, Appraisal and Residual Manifest. What happens? The Killer tunnels me off the hook, figures out I don't have DS and does the same thing again all the while I don't get to open any chests.
I do agree that some perks can definitely be buffed (I never said things shouldnt be reworked or buffed)
That's an issue with game design, not the perks, to be perfectly honest.
Regardless, it affects what people are willing to run.
If things aren't going to prevent poor game design from ruining my experience, they probably aren't worth taking the risk to run.
Fair enough - I think I misunderstood the overarching point of your post, and I do agree that while meta performs best, there's a lot of unique builds to discover and play with and they're often not bad at all, just not as all-purpose.
I dislike Predator because it makes scratch marks less likely to spawn on walls and trees, which in turn makes it harder to spot survivor activity from afar. If it works for you on Spirit, that's great, but I find it's one of those worse-than-without-it perks... though it would serve as a Lightweight counter, I suppose.
Also, @Pulsar's completely right in that survivors have a few 'locked' slots where you're really going to suffer if you don't have a second chance perk. This makes certain builds like Appraisal/Ace In The Hole/Plunderer's, CoH/Shadow Step/Exponential/Dark Theory, or Flip-Flop/Power Struggle/Unbreakable/Tenacity extremely risky because they take more slots than the mandatory counter-perks, even if they have strong synergies with each other. I said I run a lot of Autodidact earlier, and I have a beloved healing build with Autodidact/Botany/Empathic Connection, but that only leaves me one perk slot for the essentials - I can pick between an exhaustion perk and an anti-tunnel perk, and I've gone anti-tunnel, but that isn't exactly doing my chases any favors.
The same is true for killers and gen control perks, though they have more options in how they want to approach that.