Artillery is a participation trophy in pub matches.
I don't want to hear your Clan wars arguments because I agree that arty is a really good tool in CW and good arty players are essential in CW, But pub matches are not clan wars. You are not working with 15 other teammates to coordinate movements, pushes, or turtles.
Pub matches should be without arty as it requires little skill to sit in the back and shoot at tanks that are not coordinating anything but rather playing to take the advantage. In CW you actually have to think to play artillery, you wouldn't stand a chance in a top clan playing arty the way you do in a pub. It is the only class in the game that is drastically different in CW than in PUBs. If every pub match was a coordinated effort and strategy then artillery would make sense, but artillery does nothing but add to the cancerous lack of a skill gap in this game along with the type 5 and 4k5. Especially with the ridiculous stun mechanic and the absurd accuracy/splash radius. You don't even have to land the shot on me to do 400+ damage, kill a crew, and track me in the open.
Hence it is nothing more than a participation trophy.