Because shotguns technically are not useless. It was just a gross exaggeration. I csn still succeed and gather multi-kills in the current sandbox, you just have to be smarter and more mindful of when enemies use their abilities. If you see a few ice-walls on the field or ability-related deaths on the feed. That's you're que to take advantage. In other words: You now have to have a functioning brain to shotgun ape. Also, the viability pool is what you make it to be. For example...I think sidearms and SMG's of all types are amazing, but they are not on the list you made.