In all the time I've played tank (2.0 - now), I've yet to suffer any of this abuse that is so apparently rampant in DF.

I do understand, however, that some people avoid tanking after suffering said abuse. That's completely within their right and I would probably be massively turned off the job if random people I met critiqued me every chance they got.

On the other hand, I am actually in that boat of people who've played tank for so long that it's extremely boring and tedious unless new content is out to experiment with. I usually have only been playing tank these days because people need me on tank or I'm queueing with a friend who needs something and wants a fast queue. Otherwise I play MNK or DRG, which I find significantly more engaging while at the same time being more relaxing. I don't have to worry about any of the tank things that I normally have to keep an eye on, I just DPS and do the mechanics.

So I definitely understand those who get bored of tanking and want to branch out to DPS classes, and I think that might actually be a good majority of the people who no longer play tanks. I don't think we can ever really expect the abuse to stop because it never will, but we can do our part in reporting those who do abuse and hoping that it gets sorted out that way. It's unfortunate, but you either have to be extremely good at tanking or you have to be prepared for the abuse (even if you're extremely good at tanking I imagine insults are flung at you if you ever mess up anyway).