Ret Paladins were not part of the Bus Shock incident. All classes had to wait multiple patch cycles, but none longer than Hunters and Shaman. Furthermore, Ret’s patch rework in classic resulted in getting several buffs and fixes/changes, as opposed to more than 3 nerfs and a new icon art for an ability.
Some reading material in regards to Bus Shock
shaman class overhaul moved to tbc bus shock incident
Bus Shock - Start at Chapter 2
Blizz Dev Tseric gone after Bus Shock Incident - Quit or Fired?
There is no common ground aside from people being unhappy that their class isn’t the way they specifically want it to be. Ret has time and again been a strong FOTM class during multiple expansions. Are there ups and downs for Ret? Yes, absolutely. But Ret, and paladins for that matter, do not get the same treatment as the shaman class does, especially the DPS shaman.
Using classic as your example for this was highly dumb.