The only reason I've never made a hunter (and the reason I never made a non-pet class until MoP) is because I despise weapon classes. I love the idea of pet dps but I don't like weapon wielding classes. My idea is give BM hunters an option to get a buff to pet damage in lieu of ranged weapon. Say a bow does 100% of your damage (just a random number, I have no idea how much dps BM weapon do), you could choose to either have a ranged weapon if you like ranged weapons or 'sacrifice' it for a 100% buff to pet damage. It'd be similar to no class available in game. Now that there's is a minimum range on pets I see no we should add ranged pets and to have this option except you'd get some QQ from people who are trigger happy and think everybody else should too. (You know, because god forbid people have a choice in playstyle) Hell, they could even make the sacrificing option a slight DPS loss in exchange for not having to manage a ranged weapon.
EDIT: I DIDN'T ACTUALLY MEAN KILL YOUR stack stick FOR A BUFF. I used the word sacrifice because my vocabulary is limited and I'ma closeted warlock/dk player who likes to sacrifice my pets and thus hunters actually not the class for me but i qq anywsy. I meant a passive aura that activates when you don't have a bow or something.