So to finally post my response on the whole "use a non-meta weapon and prove they can work in Ranked and League (Competitive is a completely different story)" thing that sprouted up, I wholeheartedly agree with this and support it. The game is way more fun when you look at it from different angles, especially when you go it alone or in twins for Ranked and League respectively. Anyone can pick up the N-ZAP, add movement speed and whatever else you want, then run around and just point and shoot whilst spamming Ink Armor, but where's the fun in that? I think it's much better to give the weaker weapons a go (not bad, just "not viable" because x weapon has this sub/special and does it better) and gain an understanding of different playstyles, and then incorporate that into whatever weapons you like and do well with, meta or not. Part of the reason we get balance patches in fighting and competitive games is so the devs can readjust things they aren't satisfied with, the issue on Splatoon's side is the devs don't know what they're doing, and in Splatoon 2 it's obvious with the overbuff of one thing to then knock it down a little. For example I believe the Inkjet was hit too hard, I agreed with making it easier to hit people, but not make the special attack weak and not worth the risk.
Joke/troll thing or not, I doubt you'd get the top tier players doing that to see if the sheep follow, because they're the ones who typically instigate the whole "You're only doing well because no-one knows how to counter you and your low-tier weapon" meme. Half the time that is a reason why a weapon can do better than it should, but you shouldn't underestimate the weapon without looking at how they're playing it and WHY it's paying off. I haven't been following competitive Splatoon 2 (lost interest in it during the first game) so I can't speak for that side whatsoever.
As for less meta weapons, I started messing with the Gold Dynamo recently and got a bunch of really silly clips with it that I added equally silly titles to for this exact post. I started playing it again and I love it so much, I figured out how to work it, but it definitely will falter on certain maps (Inkblot and Musselforge are the biggest examples) and I won't play it on Clam Blitz, as that mode is suited towards fast mobile weapons to nip in and out to score quickly. Anyway here you go for my silly Gold Dynamo highlights:
And finally here's niche evidence of it being good but I found my K/D too amusing to not post:
