I think shredding's generally more fun to do than to listen to other people doing. It's an athletic activity, I don't see why people should say it's soul-less wank, they don't level such criticism at say shotput throwers. Besides, when you can play harmonics with both hands simultaneously and sweep-tap up and down why the hell shouldn't you? Personally I'm finding my playing tedious so I'm going to go back and work on the musician side of my playing and learn to read music, work on perfect pitch etc. It'd mean a lot more to me now to be able to play independent parts with both hands tapping than it would to be able to warp around at silly speeds.
If you're a beginner to shred remember this: tapping's piss easy, it's a trick. Right handed players generally use their weaker left hand to fret and that's the hand that does most of the skilled work. To tap an extra note with your more naturally coordinated hand is very easy. You don't have to think so hard about hand positions or how pitch changes pan out across the strings. Tapping only seems clever because people will think you've exhausted all the possibilities of using only one hand, this ain't the case even if you're Allan Holdsworth.
Another easy way to shred: pick harmonics on 5th, 4th and 3rd frets, this makes a major arpeggio, very easy but still flash.