It was designed that way but didn't it change? The criteria of the Ballon d'Or is based on individual and team performance/achievements. As far as I know, players' overall career performance is taken into account by the voters but I can be wrong.
The partnership with FIFA was cancelled, the Ballon d'Or returned to European clubs and performance of these clubs, that's why the whole Messi debate when they awarded him the last one as some sort of retirement prize.
In 2014, do you mean Muller or Manuel Noyer? I remember that Noyer had an amazing performance but I don't remember Muller being extraordinary that year.
It wasn't, but he was the top goal scorer for Germany when they won the World Cup and reached the semifinals with Bayern, so basically exactly what we had above, a guy that had no CL title to his name but a World Cup and on top of this a Bundesliga title, so normally by today's standards promtoed by some he would be infront of most of the competitors. It would be way easier to just stick to European players and clubs so it won't be that much drama, then every single continent can have their own and deal with it, you think it's discriminatory, then go play in your own league, and that's it!