Starting to think these Shillelagh builds are Overrated

Normally a fan of theorycrafting, to be clear, especially if it is coming from people actually playing the game and sharing experiences, but...

I think these SAD Paladin, Fighter, Ranger, etc. builds consistently lose more than they gain by focusing on making themselves solo mental stated via Magic Initiate Druid for Shillelagh.

It is certainly nice to streamline your array so you can be 20 in a stat that controls just about all your combat rolls and DCs, but 2024 is the absolute worst time in the timeline to being making one-weapon builds, and some of the benefits of the overall improved feats selection is lost as well.

Weapon Mastery is arguably the primary "new toy" that martial classes have received, with every class that receives them getting a minimum of 2 (Barb up to 4, Fighter up to 6!!). Maining exactly one quarterstaff/club that you're required to use in order to access your correct to-hit stat means abandoning most of that mechanic immediately. Topple is a great mastery and all, but hardly applicable to every situation, what with giving ranged caster or archer allies disadvantage, and Slow will far from cover the run of other features you will want, normally. The worst case scenario is Topple+Slow lifetime, the best, being a Fighter, still means being out Push+Sap via Tactical Master until level 9.

This on its own is likely a good reason to actively avoid Shillelagh in builds for classes that get mastery, but not even the primary reason.

I think the real shame comes with feats. While class+subclass combos like the Valor Bard suffer few downsides from a Cha feat-only progression, for Paladins, Rangers, and Fighters, focusing a mental stat limits your immediate availability to multiple incredible feats, only being able to take Dex/Str/Con feats at 12th or higher, typically, really late for most games. Mage Slayers out, obviously GWM and Dual Wielder are out on two accounts of both wrong stats and wrong styles (to be fair, you can fudge some things with Clubs + True Strike Nick weapons, I imagine), PAM's out, Defensive Duelist... its very limiting up front on your 4th and 8th slots, which will normally be exactly a mental half-ASI and mental ASI +2. Otherwise, why be SAD?

I, as a general rule, think classes like Ranger, Paladin, and Fighter (say EK) should actively avoid Shillelagh for most builds unless there is a very niche thing enabled by the specifically SAD approach, and that mostly things such as Valor Bards should be kinda interested (tho Shield spell from Magic Initiate Wizard is typically more ideal, meaning there is still significant opportunity costs. It is almost never the "obvious" choice to have Shillelagh.)

I see this suggestion popping up everywhere for just about any class it could even potentially work on, and I get that the cantrip can now be in any of the three mental stats now, but I'm thinking its significantly overrated. I'm curious what the general opinion is - maybe I have this all wrong and relatively few people were looking at this cantrip, or maybe I'm undervaluing the inherent benefits of SAD building.