It overall feels like WOTLK to me.
You gain a lot of XP for just killing random stuff. Quests give a lot as well and since the mobs do so low damage and you regen to 100% within a second, there is hardly any downtime.
Pet´s don´t seem to need much food either, you can fight three mobs as Hunter easily, without breaking a sweat.
I did expect that, I knew they wouldn´t roll with a WOW of 2004.
At loyalty level 1 they should be going sad face constantly wanting food.
I was carrying around 2 stacks of food after I tamed my boar.
Loyalty level 5 is when you have lots of breathing room but they do turn sad face when thy die and you rez them even at loyalty level 5.