Don't judge writeups that identify themselves as former nodeshells too harshly. Although such declarations are the tag of a well-known E2 grafitti gang, and sometimes signal insecurity about the quality of the writeups they inhabit, they often mean that the author is not taking credit/blame for thinking the title up.
The human mind is a funny thing, and seeing a string of words without anything under it can cause sudden inspiration. Many great nodes owe their genesis to this inspiration.
But what is the first thing readers see? Not the writeup. The title will appear in New Writeups or ENN. The title is often responsible for a major slice of a node's impact on the reader.
If you didn't think up the title, you can't take credit for it. In olden days, people couldn't see who created a node title. Doing nothing was the same thing as assuming credit for thinking up the title.
However, you certainly shouldn't do it now. Ever since our fearless coder gave certain people the ability to see who created a node, it has been unnecessary, and even pointless, to mention that your writeup had previously been under a nodeshell.
Even though "lost little nodeshell" declarations have been relegated to the status of a historical curiousity, you will see them from time to time. They will never be purged entirely.