OP does not understand Vanilla Hunter b/c he never played it. It is actually quite simple:
1. Beast Mastery was the Levelling tree and the tree of choice for those that used their Hunter for grinding.
2. Marksmanship was the Raiding tree.
3. Survival was the PvP tree used by Hunters who exclusively PvP'd. 0/21/30 and 0/20/31 with wyvern sting were incredibly strong PvP specs.
OP also does not understand the meaning of "Survivalist". A Vanilla "Survivalist" is actually a true hunter conforming to the Native American Hunter/Gatherer archetype. A "Beast Master" in WoW is more of a Beast Tamer who trains his pet to do stuff as opposed to forming a bond with it like original Hunters did.
P.S.: Not interested/not applicable to Retail as I don't play Retail and don't want to.