I am going to make the argument that our hybrid nature is MORE in play than ever before in WoD
In WoD, you will still have the following hybrid-esque abilities as cat:
- soothe
- Faerie Fire
- Cyclone
- Healing Touch
- Rejuvenation
Moonfire for feral has never been more powerful than it will be with LI. Feral healing has never been more powerful than it will be in WoD. Cats can still go Bear Form and tank effectively for 24 full seconds using SI back to back, or with HotW.
In bear form you will use mangle and faerie fire on cooldown and fill with thrash spam. For healing, you will spread rejuv and spot with healing touch. For spellcasting you will spam wrath. This is all perfectly fine to me.
I am disappointed we lost roots, but as I pointed out, you can still talent into an instant cast entangling roots. Otherwise what is the complaint? You think hibernate, barkskin, and might of ursoc were crucial examples of our hybrid nature? I disagree. Those abilities are either rarely used or cooldowns. I think having fundamental versatile spells like healing touch and cyclone are more indicative of this and in WoD they are just as effective (or moreso) in the meta as ever.
FF isn't a taunt so it won't overtake tank aggro, and if you're trying to dispel the enrage off something, then you're already in combat with it.
Mostly because it's pointless when you have Entangling Roots already, and PS affecting it. Without those two things, an instant aoe root with a 30 second cooldown seems reasonable against two other slows in the tier.
Essentially allowing cyclone to be cast in cat form is only saving people 1 second of gcd every time you cast cyclone. It don't think this makes it mandatory even for pvp, assuming there are other nice major glyphs, but you may be right.