Have warriors ever not been incredible?

[Raugnaut]

Well I remember seeing arms warriors go sword and board in early vanilla. I'm not talking about shield wall. Dudes literally using it all the time.

If I recall, there was a few threat talents in the Arms tree that was more or less mandatory for off-tanks to keep threat, and even for some very good geared main tanks.

[Strear]

I don't see many people changing from melee DPS to ranged DPS or to Healer because other spec is better. Most of times (at least in my friendship circle) people stick to their roles rather than their classes. Same goes to most high end players I follow (e.g.: vanguards is now playing an enhancement shaman, instead of changing to holy pally).

I honestly think that more than you think did/do that. I believe that on many sides, the " lore " sells us Retribution as the true paladin spec. When it comes to the real WoW game, in pvp, paladins are healers for many of us. I dare to say that many of the most famous heroes on the human side are retribution paladins.
I changed from retribution to holy to be able to play RBG, and because I didn't want to stop playing paladin. I still enjoy playing Retribution more than anything else, in random bgs, wpvp or arena.