*hardcore. You're missing a word there. Unless the spec you love is unusually gimped ala WotLK-era Frost mages or Sub rogues, the only raiders your statement really applies to are people pushing cutting edge progression content. The majority of raiders don't need to be changing specs over the kinds of minor differences in DPS most classes are seeing these days, because in the level of content they're doing it won't really make a difference. You also have to understand that when we're talking about the masses here, just because a spec is theorycrafted or simmed to be best, it doesn't mean the average person's going to be able to work that kind of DPS with it, especially if it's a spec they're unfamiliar with. Just for myself, as someone that's been mostly Frost except when it really, REALLY sucked, Fire had a bit of a learning curve for me because I wasn't used to monitoring dots as a mage, and I'm still trying to get used to the clunky way Arcane does AoE now. Sometimes people do better DPS sticking with what they know, even if math says they "should" be using another spec.