The way I view things follows:
1) Has Shero done nothing? No. He's made coaching and front office changes (whether or not one agrees with any or all of them, they are concrete things that he has done). He's traded for Palmieri. He's signed and re-signed players. He's bought out players and cut strings with others like Gomez (and Bernier, too). I don't agree with all the things he's done, but he's certainly done them.
2) Has Shero done all that he could possibly do to improve this team? No, but I think he did try to do everything he could to improve it. He tried to get another pick in the first round and to acquire Saad. Part of his failure to achieve those things he attempted to do is simply that he has less resources in terms of traceable assets than GMs he was in competition with and the GMs he was looking to trade with obviously preferred other options. Shero has achieved some things that he set out to do, and not others. That's pretty typical of a GM or anyone in any competitive field like this, to be honest. Now, if he had honestly done nothing or hadn't been able to achieve any of the things he wanted to do to improve the team, that would be different, but since he's accomplished some things, I think we have to give him more than one off-season to see what he can build here in NJ.
3) Is Shero trying to build a "competitive" roster this year? Depends on what you mean by competitive. He's not trying to tank, since if he was Cory would probably have been traded by now. However, I think he's more concerned with the long-term future of this team (really trying to get the Devils back to being a steady playoff presence/contender as in the past) than in making short-term gains. He seems content to go with a young defense even if mistakes are made because he wants them to get experience, and he doesn't seem interested in signing older veterans like Gomez because he'd rather try to develop some young forwards in those slots. The Devils have gotten a lot younger. Whether this makes them better over time remains to be seen, and there certainly will be struggles next year, but there also might be some nice surprises to when youngsters get opportunities they might not with veterans around. No matter what, we weren't going to win the Cup this year, and Shero has most of a forward corps to refurbish. That wasn't going to happen in one off-season or with some veteran signings. It was going to mainly happen through drafting and development with maybe some shrewd trades to supplement.
Bottom line for me is that I don't agree with everything Shero has done so far, but he has done enough good things that I'm going to give him some time before judging too harshly and I'm not going to blame him too much for the state of a forward corps that he inherited. When he got it, it was probably the worst in the league (or close to it). The forward corps has a long way up to go before it even reaches mediocrity. That's really not on Shero.
I do try my best to make them logical and respectful. I appreciate your posts, too, because you aren't afraid to have your own opinions about things and to challenge the conventional viewpoint on here. Even if we don't agree on everything, it's good to have the civil discussions. 
