Well, according to this (
http://www.wowhead.com/npc=55532#abilities), a pre-Warlock-skull-eating Demon Hunter has the following abilites:
Darklance - a Shadow spell
Demon Rush - a physical ability that is descriptive rather than a demonic ability
Gift of Sargeras - the famous power blessed upon Illidan
Taunt - a Defensive Stance
Waters of Eternity - probably an Illidan only ability
So based on this, I think Blizzard sees Demon Hunters as a class to be thematically more like
Spellswords or
Magetank than Demons or Warlocks. They even set the stage thematically by mysteriously allowing Night Elves to be Mages; they could already be Rogues. Illidan was a Mage first right? Then he fought as a Demon Hunter, and then he became a Demon and everyone started confusing him for a Warlock.
You can make a three-spec class around this
Spellsword/
Magetank concept easily with melee and tanking trees, and possibly could be expanded to included a ranged tree with some creative vision.
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LOL. I guess I shouldn't be arguing that's what DHs are then huh? :P