Only M+ and mythic raiders, need to make a clear distinction to that… I consider high ranking PVP high end content and they mostly, if not all use pet, losing one is losing valuable asset that is not getting a good replacement
This is oversimplification, trying to tie everything as appeal to emotion.
you are ignoring, casuals, solo and pvp players, its not just “emotional attachment” to a pet, tis about the RPG part of wow and how you interact with the class and spec you play, how it feels to actually enjoy questing and other content for whatever reason you want.
Turn back the decision, and dont remove pets at all.