I've been tanking since ARR, over 6 years. I've never once been thanked for playing tank and neither really should i, im just fulfilling a role, im not some messiah that loves to inflinct pain on myself in the form of playing tank, as you seem to want to describe it as- If you're talking about Commendations, its just easy for people to pick the tank or healer because its easy to see when they're doing a passable or bad job, but its not nearly as easy for dps. People just don't pay attention, It's as simple as that.

It is true there are seemingly more tanks in SHB than any previous expansion, but thats simply because one of the new jobs is a tank, and tanking at a base line level has become much easier. It's only a good thing for the health of the game, so sorry if its not good for your ego.