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The holiday achievements are not necessary to advance your character. If you want a title or the mount reward at the very end of What a Long, Strange Trip It's Been, however, you will have to participate at least marginally in all these aspects of the game.
The holidays are designed to allow a large breadth of the playerbase to participate in some form, and there's normally something for you to do within the holiday itself. How much you choose to participate is up to you. If you choose to pursue the achievements, then you will have to participate in all these aspects of gameplay. That is absolutely by design and not something we plan to change currently.
That said, if leveling your cooking for Winter Veil seems like a tedious task, I suggest you wait until Pilgrim's Bounty....
Onyxia too easy?
The new Onyxia is meant to be more of a celebration of the 5 years of World of Warcraft and not a progression encounter. The way it is setup is for as many people as possible to still enjoy in the game and get some extra bonus loot/emblems/bags/gems on top of that.
On top of that, players certainly understand the game much better now than they did when Onyxia first came out. This became pretty clear when people didn't get much better gear but were able to kill her with fewer and fewer players even at level 60.
Arthas in Warcraft 3
Warcraft 3 really established Arthas in the position of the Lich King in its expansion - The Frozen Throne. His relevance is not to be trivialized, but to say that we have established him as "The Big Boss" is a bit of a stretch. Warcraft 3 introduced a whole new level of threat to Azeroth - The Burning Legion. There have been some encounters with them and their powerful masters, but I'd hesitate to say that they've been "defeated" once and for all. We've also seen the rise of old gods such as Yogg'Saron and C'thun and I'm sure you're aware of the impending return of Deathwing. There is a whole slew of lore characters who haven't been around and thousands of plots and intrigues that have been developed throughout the lifespan of World of Warcraft and its expansions. Many big nasty bosses have been slain and still the problems of the world have not been alleviated. Perhaps, just maybe, there is more going on then one can gather in a glimpse.
Shaman
Blodlust / Heroism
Bloodlust / Heroism is a very strong buff. No argument here. I can understand the point of view of players who think other specs need to offer it. Currently three specs offer it, but they are also specs that fill relatively different roles. The fact that all three specs belong to one class makes it a special case.
In general, we balance 25 hard mode content assuming you have 1 shaman for Bloodlust or Heroism. We balance 10 hard modes without that assumption, though you still need to have a reasonable mix of the stronger buffs. We don't think that typically replacing a good say mage with a bad shaman will turn a failure into a success, but each group is a little different so it is possible.
