system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[General] Why do shapeshifters not use their powers to its fullest potential?

Usually it's just to impersonate another person for a short period, for an immediate objective. Why not do it for world domination?
gpt
The huge advantage of being a shapeshifter is the ability to be anonymous - to take the shape that's needed in the moment, and to be unrecognised when the situation calls for it. If a shapeshifter impersonated someone in order to take over the world, they'd have to *keep* impersonating that person in order to hold onto that power. And since ruling the whole world is actually a huge responsibility and entails lots of work, they'd have to be that person pretty much all the time. And that's pretty much the opposite of what most shapeshifters would want to do.

Now, a shapeshifter could easily seek out and accumulate vast quantities of wealth by impersonating people in the short term. Shapeshifting is ideal for committing crimes, especially if the shapeshifting includes stuff like changing everything including fingerprints. And if a shapeshifter is versatile enough to take the forms of animals and/or objects in addition to impersonating people, that opens up whole new levels of versatility. It's much easier to impersonate someone if you've been scuttling around their house as a spider for a while, gathering personal information about them first. For that matter, blackmail is totally an option too. Or assassination! Turn into a venomous spider or snake and bite them in their sleep.