my physio had me doing lat pulldowns, palms away, pulling infront of me, with ridiculously light weights, focusing on activating the scapula depressors (building the mind muscle connection),
then working into heavier scap depres or retraction exersizes; the ussuals, external rotations, facepulls,
alternating which movement pattern you use to activate, and use a different one for the strengthening exersize,
The only time I could see benefit in doing shrugs is if they where the weak point in your lift and increasing your number on that lift is your goal.
The sheer volume of scapula elevation most people get from deadlifting, olympic lifts, shrugs, upright rows (god only knows why)
seems to far out weigh the scapula depression and retraction work.
Even if people are doing scap dep/rotation work, ussually the volume isnt nearly balanced and they often arent doing them properly.
I thought I was doing enough work on my depressors and retractors, including scap pushups ide seen from thib articles and some external rotations, but I neglected the activation phase and was really not acheiving what i intended from these exersizes. (my upper traps where “cheating” the exersize and compensating for my lazy depressors and retractor.
By focusing on properly activating these muscles I significantly helped my overall strength (when I was training).