Idols of Shang Ti were unheard of the first 2500 years of China's history! The few idols found today don't disqualify Shang Ti from being God's revelation of Himself to the Chinese. They make idols of Jesus now in the temples of Taiwan. That doesn’ t cause us to stop using the name of Jesus.
G. Thompson Brown in Earthen Vessels and Transcendent Power also mentioned the fact that some missionaries finding the name Shang Ti being used in idol worship rejected it as a term for God in the Scriptures. Idolatrous use of the name Shang Ti would be expected to happen eventually. Man is prone to idolatry! (Rom. 1:21-23) The amazing thing in China is that, despite China's very long history, there has been so little idolatrous use of the name Shang Ti. We should remember how quickly Israel, under Aaron, made an idol to represent "the gods that brought them up out of the land of Egypt" (Read Exodus 32).

Isa. 44:15; Judges 8:4,33; Ex. 12:12; 18:11; 2 Kings 19:18; etc.

Satan is always trying to "be like the most High" (Isa. 14:12-15). We know he will try to steal the name of God and use it for himself. We are told by Jesus Himself that many will attempt to steal His name and pretend to be the Christ (Matt. 24:4-5; 24:24; I John 2:18; 4:3).
The apostles, in order to reach the Greek world with the Gospel, chose the term Theos for God. The article "the" (o) used with Theos (singular) always made it clear they were referring to the one true God and not to one of the many other gods (theoi - plural). Theoi were neither Theos nor O Theos. The term was already in use among philosophers, and had been used in the Septuagint (an ancient Greek translation of the Bible), and was the term nearest in meaning to El and Elohim (one of the Hebrew names for God). The apostles’ intention was to introduce the true knowledge of the "unknown God" (Acts 17:23-30) whom every nation among which they preached, "ignorantly worshipped" in its own way.
For sure, the Bible translator does not want to introduce a totally “ new term” into the language for God. That would be preaching “ strange and foreign gods” to them.

S. C. Malan, Who is God in China, Shin or Shang Ti?, 156-164.

W. H. Medhurst printed a book at the Mission Press in Shanghai in 1847 titled, A Dissertation On The Theology of the Chinese, With a View to the Elucidation of the Most Appropriate Term for Expressing The Deity, in The Chinese Language. In this work Medhurst gives every verse from the Chinese Classics that mentions Shang Ti, Ti, Shen, and Ling (spirit). He deals with every verse individually, showing that Shang Ti is the term most appropriate for the one true God in the Chinese translation of the Scriptures. He also deals with every verse that contains Shen and shows how this term would be inadequate for expressing the concept of the one true God to the Chinese.
A copy of Medhurst’ s book, on microfilm, is available from the library of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.
James Legge, The Notions of the Chinese Concerning God and Spirits is also an essential piece of research for anyone interested in pursuing this subject further.

W. H. Medhurst, A Dissertation on the Theology of the Chinese With a View to the Elucidation of The Most Appropriate Term for Expressing The Deity, in the Chinese Language. (Shanghae: The Mission Press, 1847), 273-274, 277-278.

James Legge, The Notions of the Chinese Concerning God and Spirits, 14-16.
See also W. H. Medhurst, On The Theology of the Chinese, 234-235.