I dont have much input on the OPs commentary other than I agree that we have been ignored long enough. As much as I disdain certain dev's on a personality basis from what I can glean from the boards, I must admit that I feel the vast majority of them are doing their jobs to the best of their ability with little to no bias, as much as that is possible.
Good idea (darkmagepaul), but lets take it a step further and make it actually helpful to us as a whole. How about have totems move with us permanently, always. Have each of the 4 totems circle around us, each a different color "mote". They can have a graphical effect much like water or lightning shield. Granted it would make seeing what all you have up slightly more difficult because youd have to look in your "buffs panel" to see if your grounding totem was up or not, mixed in with fortitude and arcane int, but hey. thats what add-ons are for. The graphics for water and lightning shield would need to be altered, maybe to look more like a priests shield buff?