Totally Lame gems to find in a race

There are times when you find a gem that works well with your build, and that is awesome.

There are times when you find a gem that's not so great for you, but at least you see why someone might want it, or how you might be able to use it to your advantage (skeletons, decoy totem, blind, an aura, detonate dead, ice spear, viper strike, a curse, immortal call, blood rage, etc...).

There are also some gems which aren't useful in a short race, but could be awesome later on if you have enough time, so you can at least respect them. (RF, discharge, raise spectre, explosive arrow)

Then there are some gems which are so bad, nobody would ever use them in a race. Ever. (Chance to flee - but even that might be useful for ST if you don't have a better support gem! So, animate weapon and animate guardian, I'm looking at you.)

Why don't these lame gems get buffed early-game, so that they might actually be useful in a race?