Translation:
Most of these “veteran” hunters that “loved” ranged survival so much aren’t all that veteran after all, and associate the “hunter look” with having a sheathed gun in the first place. Survivals melee weapon aesthetic, ironically, is a love letter to the stat-stick-wielding hunters of old.
Blizzard could make surv fully-ranged again but your crowd would still bemoan having to visibly use a melee weapon. It’s not about ranged vs melee. It’s about appearances and getting your way.
Luckily, we can say with near certainty you won’t be getting your way, because Blizzard is not about to undo the mage tower appearances for a spec to satiate Sour Grape aficionados who cannot accept a changing game.
Surv isn’t the first, only, or last spec to be drastically changed over the years, but the lamentation on the hunter forums could sure convince an outsider that it is. The truth is that ranged survival as you remember it was never ThE OriGinAl PlAyStyLe, and many gamers are simply opposed to all changes that personally affect them, while demanding changes where it doesn’t.
The forum “consensus” on the topic isn’t helped by the fact that some of the vocal participants in RaNgEd vs SuRviVaL are the archetypal example of saccharine passive-aggression and will absolutely team up on reporting posts they don’t like, knowing that the system presently in place on these forums makes it relatively easy to get someone muted by “community vote.”
Then the same individuals wonder why the metric-holders-that-be seem unwilling to consider forum feedback with any level of credibility.