I disagree with your point about sheep losing its value. So sap works on beasts and humanoids now... it's still not sheep, as it can't be re-cast in combat. And it still breaks on damage, just like sheep. I'd prefer a mage.

Hex... from what I've read, hex isn't sheep; it's blind with a cast time. Lasts for 10 seconds, has a cooldown. Not re-castable. I don't think this is really what shammies needed, so it may very well end up as a more ordinary CC by the time Wrath comes out. But as it stands now, I'd prefer a mage.

Indoor root is a great dungeon buff for boomkins and healers that don't use tree form. Root isn't quite as simple as sheep, since sheeped mobs can still attack at range. So you'd have to root the target so that the party is out of range/LOS. On the other hand, root will work on any mob that isn't nature-immune, and won't always break on damage. So if my group needs CC and has a healadin or several casters, I'll probably take a boomkin instead of a mage, for the aura. Otherwise, it's pretty much a toss-up.

So, one class's least popular spec will be as good, or arguably better at CC than mages. Mages are still up there at the top of the list if I need some CC. And, in my experience, one can rarely afford to be choosy while assembling a pug.

Of course, this whole post is about raid dps, and since I only do 10-man raids, with a kind of small guild, my opinion probably isn't worth much. But IMO, mages still do very good dps. Not the best, apparently, but far from broken. I don't agree with the whole "we die fastest so we should do the most dps" argument. All non-tanks die extremely fast in raids if they pull aggro (except those damned death-cheating rogues). And in pvp you have frost nova, blink, ice block, and chill effects to help you stay out of harm's way (plus a shield and an elemental if you're frost, and shatter shield when Wrath comes out). So... while mages probably could use a small buff to their damage, the problem isn't nearly as big as some of them are making it out to be. They're not broken, not useless, not hopelessly outclassed by the perennially overpowered warlock. They could use some tweaking. That's it.