Pets on retail completely lacks the attachment that pets have on older expansions like the classic ones.
You don’t need to feed them, you don’t need to train them, you don’t need to level them up, you don’t need to spend time with them to make them your best friend, they don’t have talents, you can rez them in 5 seconds with barely any cost (some focus that you regain over the cast duration versus half your mana pool on classic) or negative effect (loss of happiness on classic) when they die…
I’m just gonna say it… Pets are boring as heck on retail. I could just abandon my current pet and not care one bit. Hell, I can’t even name one of my pet because you can’t rename a pet that had a unique name.
I don’t even care enough about it to remember the name I gave it, yet I can remember the name of my pet from original WotLK. I don’t feel any emotional connection with a pet that has as much personality as a death knight’s ghoul.