If so, should we swap the visuals? Because it makes sense for Thunderers to throw lightning bolts, based on their name, but it's not necessarily the case for Titans.

I didn't quite understand, are you suggesting replacing the cloud visual with a chain of lightning bolts?
Or swapping the visuals of the Titan models (lightning and wind effects)?

As an alternative, we could swap the names of the Titans and Thunderers, and then give the Thunderers (formerly Titans) a chain of lightning bolts (but not as a spell, but as an ability). Although, I don't think that's a great idea.

For some reason, I thought they had the same animations...

In general, yes, the animations differ only in color, but in any case, they shoot very epically, and I wouldn't want to lose that...

Players of the Shadow League disagree with you.

The Shadow League mainly focuses on initiative, high mobility, and damage output; archers are only for minor support. The situation is somewhat different with the Academics; the faction as a whole is designed for ranged combat and magic.

With Titans, the logic is simple: they are a tier 7 unit and also a large creature, which makes them not the best archers. They are easy to take down.

Yes, that's true; their size often negates the usual ranged attack of a unit, but the developers have taken this into account. First, they removed the melee penalty, so Titans and Storms can deal even more damage than some dragons... Second, Titans were given a lightning strike, and Storms a cloud, which more than compensates for their size on the battlefield.

They have a lot of health and defense, which allows them to effectively tank.

I wouldn't say that 190 health for a tier 7 unit is a lot; it's a fairly average value. Although, they are indeed effective as tanks, largely due to the melee attack without a penalty.

If you increase their stats or give them a good melee ability (a stunning blow? Maybe a cast of some kind of spell on hit, like lightning? Although I'm not sure if that's feasible), then it would more than compensate for the ineffective ranged attack in this case. Another upgrade, with ranged attack, would be taken under certain circumstances: a general focus on ranged attack for the mage, capturing/defending cities, and so on, which are also possible uses.

Storms could become good melee units, but Titans are good in both melee and ranged combat; personally, I wouldn't take Storms. Or, we could remove the melee penalty from Titans to emphasize the fundamental difference. But then again, Titans might be less in demand than they should be.