Tickletotem is the owner of Sentry Totem and manager of Totemspot, quite surprising more people don't know who she is if they know of these sites
Maybe see what the class is like to play for yourself with the changes, rather than base your opinion on what other people decide to do. The people you mention specifically weren't even always Shamans.
Tickle played a paladin and hunter, she only changed to shaman during Cata, as did Leeds who was a priest in Wrath and only made a shaman as his guild needed one. People change class, it happens for various reasons and it is clear in some situations it is dependent on what their guild or raid team needs at the time. It could be something as simple as a lot of people deciding to play X class because it is the more powerful DPS class and it will give their team an advantage.
It sounds like a complaint regarding elemental rather than shamans as a whole?