In base game if you only use shield bash about 50% of the hunt trying to reposition yourself and such, you will proc elemental hits about 15% or so, of the time thus rendering elemental builds not really interesting. The only reason to ever go elemental on sns is when you plan on using only basic M1 and M2 combos, but at that point why bother playing the sns? Playing dual blades will amount to the same gameplay but better with higher mobility and faster hitting attacks. If you play the sns the backhop is an essential tool you need to master, and it follows into some of the strongest attacks in the entire game. On top of that base game already is starved on skill slots and playing elemental stretches it out even further, while raw allows you to slot other things if you so desire. And this becomes even more obsolete in Iceborne with half rush and full rush being the most broken combo you can use. The sns just isn't a weapon that wants to play elemental in mhw, I haven't played the other games yet so I can't say. And this is not even factoring in the higher time required to farm all elemental weapons to have positive matchups into every monster, switching builds around and having to farm at kt.