Yeah... they balance from the point of view of a single shaman.
And have already precluded having elementals in arena.

So a Fire Elemental every 5 mins, is decent AoE damage in raids.
At the cost of the Totem of Wrath or Flametongue totem, depending on spec.

For us boxers, you could use one every minute.
Or more likely, our x4/5 AoE button would see a lot more use.

I tend to save them, because of the long cooldown.
And really, how many of us have them glyphed?
I'm using Flame Shock, Lava Burst and Lightning Bolt for the dps.
Or the pvpers likely use the shock GCD reduction glyph in there.