You didn't need any bag space for food, you just needed the glyph which was a minor glyph (and there are none of those that increase dps so it was well affordable).

The need to feed - or "mend" - your pet added flavour that was unique to hunters. As someone said above, no other class needs to feed their weapons etc. I say, EXACTLY. It's one of the things unique to the hunter class.

Much as I love the changes in Cataclysm and the direction the game is going altogether, these little things make me a little sad. It's like the game is getting reduced to "functual" things only. In the same category is the removal of class-specific quests. In my opinion it should MEAN something if I choose to be a hunter, or any other class. It should bring about flavour that is unique to that class. Otherwise it comes to choosing a class solely for its dps potential.

That's my 0.02$ - it's no biggie and I'm not going to cry "evil Blizzard, I'm cancelling my subscription", lol, I just preferred it the way it was before :-)