I’ve played this game off and on since Vanilla, and aside from a scribe I had in WoD, I’ve never really invested any time in professions.
Are any of the professions in Shadowlands actually fun, and not just a set of chores? I’ve an undead rogue I’m leveling.
It depends on what you consider fun…
It seems like most of the professions are pretty useless until you get to absolute max level and can do something useful. I typically get better gear while leveling than I can do with any profession. Herbalism/alchemy is useful at all levels to make potions and enchanting is always good. But it seems more like something to do rather than an integral component. Kind of like archeology and pet battles - just something to do and spend time with.
I think Blizzard would do good to make the professions more fun - not only the mechanics but also what they produce. For instance, making potions could easily be a mini-game and the better you do at it the stronger the potion is. Look at how New World handled fishing, turning what is a basic mechanic in WOW into something interesting and fun to do.
I find professions to be less and less fun and useful with every new xpac.
When leveling a new toon, there’s usually one or two recipes worth learning for a given profession that I know about due to leveling every profession many times over the years since Vanilla.
The remainder are a waste of mats and time and no source of pleasure.
Herb, Mining, Cooking, and Fishing are fun 
I found that actual “crafting” professions withhold too much.
In Legion, and BFA, this character and my Hunter both herbed and mined. Then we sold it all on the AH. That gave us a ton of money, so I bought every mount ever sold on the AH; I think I’m only missing a donkey, which I never see up (the Drustvar drop?)
I like those because you can do them “in passing”, while on the way to a quest/whatever.
What I find fun in blacksmithing is having a recipe that takes a lot of time and effort to craft and upgrade and the end result is something that is equivalent to raid gear.
I think TBC is the last time blacksmithing was really “fun”
depends on what your thinking of fun. I find engineering very useful and fun to have maxed out. I also enjoy herbimg and mining from time to time when I’m bored.
Short answer, NO. The Cost of Orboreal shards is stupid freaking high and you cannot AH the lower ranks or even vendor them. 125g per shard 20+ shards on some rank… 50 on others. It’s cheaper to find someone who makes the slot you want and just pay their price. I have some items maxed and it cost me a freaking fortune just in shards.
Yea. I agree. They are terrible now. I hate how Blizz split them into categories now. I used to be able to craft TCG gems on my mage that was level 70 before level scrunch but after the scrunch it was reset to 0 for some reason and also having a 300 proff level where i could craft anything I wanted for lower stuff when it was changed a lot of that stuff I could not make at all.
The only thing I like about the Shadowlands professions is that they’re extremely easy to level. That’s not because of the crafting professions themselves but rather the availability of resources.
However, I am actually enjoying building older professions and getting old patterns. Some of them are challenging and require some farming but I’d say they’re quite enjoyable if you like task-oriented play. You can also make some decent money from them (especially during Timewalking weeks).