In what world was retribution decent in Wrath of the Lich King? The spec was literally, hit whatever is off of cooldown. There was a priority for certain abilities, but even if you screwed that up, you did fine. Pure face-roll at it's finest. I have to imagine you're just talking about position on a damage meter, which many people seems to equate to quality class design and game play. It doesn't.
I've been convinced over the years and checking back in at new expansions that it doesn't matter what they change. No one is every happy. A lot of good changes have been made over the years, and a lot of bad ones have been made as well. Some things need to be fixed as always, but to say we've been ignored is an ignorant statement itself.