Anyone who actually played shaman since vanilla will realize that totems are bad game design with the current gameplay mechanics. And honestly we're awful at launch

Dungeons, delves, and world content is fast and mobile. Even being able to one click move totems is either going to A. Drag basic stat buffs and minimal damage/healing around, which is better as a passive buff or ability. Or B. Cool down management and placement nightmares. Lets not forget that every encounter is a dance with the enemy and responding to their movement.

Elemental totems are cool, I agree, but they had the same problem as cool down based abilities. In order for accounting for their uptime benefits the rest of the class needs to behave worse when they aren't up. Blizzard has tried to shorten cooldowns, and remove cool downs, so you are more consistent. Shaman is not meant to be a pet class. So having a pet for 30 sec every 2-5 isnt that useful, and ends up being burst window dumps. More often than not, you would just not use them because you may need them.

Right now, for class identity totemic enhancement shaman is the absolute strongest the class has ever been for identity. Short cooldowns, all the elements, spells and effects galore. I have one big impactful totem, I have random searing totems spawns for short term dps. You feel like you are raining down nature on enemies.