Can't agree with you on him being positionally better than Flood, the amount of fouls Shinnie gave away after getting caught out of position was staggering, notice how much Shinnies flaws showed up in games after Jack left, Jack covered for him quite a bit and Shinnie struggled when the onus was on him to dictate the midfield.
Two Scotland managers agree with you, that doesn't hold much weight when they are picking from a small pool of players and he's only managed 6 appearances, one of which he got completely shown up in.