Useless? Nah. My playstyle with shotguns in PvE is give the enemy a prostate exam with my boomstick before pulling the trigger. It'll definitely hurt me against, say, Aksor, but my favorite shotguns don't even have range extending perks, so I should be fine. As for PvP, if they don't one shot up close there is an issue. It's when they two shot from mid range, that's a serious issue.