People are using 2 prot 2 holy and a ret in uldar even some with 2 holy 2 prot 2 ret as you got fights that need the utility eg alg 25.
There damage is lower sure but paired with the top tank and healer there is tons of pallys in every raid to the point of 6-7 slots being used on pallys in uldar for alg and 4 in more normal comps. This is 20-30% of the raid as pally’s. When there is 9 classes in classic one taking up 20-30% of the avg raid is not the level of needing a buff.
I din’t see a single ptr log of the upper guilds that where not taking at least 1 ret over a clear (2 if there prot went ret for a fight). As they were wanting DS. Having 1/25 raid spots being basically set in stone to have a ret is good. While taking more than 1 is not a bad idea.
Fact is there is no data that shows pallys being underrepresended that blizzards wants to see if you want buffs. There is not even data showing ret as underrepresented in both naxx and uldar. Ret was quite played in naxx and from the ptr we are seeing them in demand.
In fact using jordee from fusion as a example. He found hunters as a whole to be less worth a raid spot than ret. As hunters din’t provide enough to justify the lower dps they bought vs another lock for prog.