I mean, you’re never going to get away from there being a “best” configuration for any given content. The point is to not have pet looks tied to that. To make it so I’m not forced to run a Clefthoof in order to have a properly survivable pet, or run a Hyena, Raptor, or Rodent (Cunning + MS) if I want to PvP.
What if I want to run one of those amazing new vulpine foxes they added in Shadowlands? Oh, foxes are Cunning + Dodge CD, literally one of the worst possible combinations of pet abilities in the game, inferior in every type of content.
Really? What was lost? The fact that players can now actually customize their appearance? That they aren’t forced to look like clowns using whatever mishmash of models happens to be on their best gear?
Transmog is easily one of the best things ever added to WoW.
I mean, sorta. Once they devote the art time to it, that art is fixed, they aren’t going to put a bunch of labor in halfway through a tier to update art that was received poorly. Without transmog, the net effect is that you get to spend months looking like a 3rd grader’s puke art rather than, you know, what you prefer to look like.