There is a new article on Wowhead, which contains a wish-list for pet battles.
The article is very well put together, with very nice illustrations. However, I disagree strongly with some of the actual suggestions. I don’t have the time to write up and illustrate an equivalent response, but I can make brief comments on each of the suggestions.
I list the suggestions from the article below, with my omments.
- “More Frequent Balance Changes”
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Not that!!! 
The underlying general problem is a hard one. “Balance” cannot be attained in pet battles, given the base of species, abilities, and breeds that we have. If you don’t believe it, pick 10 random species and try to balance them by changing their movesets and base stats.
The devs recognise this, and don’t intend to try to make pet battling, and specifically PvP, into a competitive game (Hazelnutty pre-BfA interview with Muffinus 2018) so balancing tightly is not important.
This brings me back to arguments I used to have with Rosqo. I agreed with him that frequent balance changes would disrupt the stultifying PvP meta, but it would destroy PvE, since strategies would be broken with every change, and few people keep up with pet mechanics enough to cope.
Even more important, we get to know our pets - at least the ones we use often - and what their abilities can do. I don’t want to have to keep re-acquainting myself with them, and finding my favourites don’t work as they used to. 
As it is, the devs make a few changes for the most broken imbalances (but WHAT was that Sandstorm buff supposed to do??) once per expansion, and that’s about the right cadence.
I believe frequent changes would degrade the whole game past playing. I’d, sadly, be out, I’m sure.
- “Adding Gear Slots for Each Pet”
- “Stat-Up Use item”
These are two of the genre of “Power-Up” ideas. Putting aside the extra complications of building and managing such an extra system, it adds unpredictability and difficulty to pets themselves in PvP. It also completely destroys balance and consistency in regular PvE strats.
- “Elective Mode - Remove the either-or Pick for Abilities”
The distribution of abilities to slots is part of the balancing of pets. The Teroclaw Hatchling and the Bone Serpent are two examples of OP pets the devs nerfed by rearranging the slots. If we could rearrange the abilities so that we weren’t forced to choose between two good options, some pets would go from “good” to “God” in 2.3 seconds. Others would not benefit much. It would increase the power differences wildly, and add further problems for what balance there is.
- “Pet Battler Society Reputation - Fame”
I’m not entirely clear on the details of this one, so I take it as a suggestion for a general direction to add a seasonal earning system similar to Conquest/Valor, encompassing PvE and PvP.
Personally, I don’t like “seasons”; they are just a mechanism to inject extra FOMO into the game. And, of course, once the devs introduce such a system, they have to keep it up in future. But putting that aside, I’m not sure what seasons would add to pet battling and collecting.
- “Passive Leveling from The Stable, and Summoned Companion Leveling”
This doesn’t affect me personally, but it does mess up the curve for people starting. People who are starting, or who don’t even battle at all, get free levelling. It is vastly easier to level now than it has ever been, and the devs gave a huge buff to XP just recentlu. I don’t think we need free levelling.
- “Pet/Trainer Auras”
Glows, shines, and other cosmetic effects would be nice, but I’m not personally chasing it too hard.
- “Faster and more Dynamic Battle Animations”
Several people have asked specifically to have battle animations significantly shortened or even removed altogether to make battles faster. I’ve never felt that this was necessary. I enjoy being in a battle - well done, original devs! - and I’m never in a rush to get out of it.
Making the animations more flashy, adding more sounds, booming announcer voices, would probably actually militate against making them faster. I don’t particularly want changes in this area, but whether changes would be good or bad would depend on the changes themselves.
- “More Music in the Battles”
NOOOOOOOO!! I love the pet battle music! If the devs want to add options for alternative music, I have no objection, of course.
- “Let Color Variants Feel More Exciting”
Highlighting variants does seem like a nice idea.
- “Show Skins/Color Variants on the AH”
There aren’t many cageable pets with variants, but adding a display on ths auction line would be nice and wouldn’t hurt anything. However, since we can already view the variant, and since different variants aren’t stacked, it’s just a matter of convenience.
- “Make Parts of the Add-on Rematch Part of the Default UI”
I don’t really have a comment on this. I love Rematch, ofc. and consider it essential. The devs did a UI revamp recently. Maybe they will follow it up by a pet UI change.
- “Experience as a Secondary Way to Increase Rarity”
People suggested this since the start of pet battles. In older days, Blue stones were very rare, and an alternative way to increase the Rarity would have been very valuable. Nowadays, with Blue stones so cheap, I don’t see a strong reason to add rarity levelling as well.
- "Ground Mounts set as a “background”
I have no feeling about this. I wouldn’t use it, but I don’t object to the option.
- “Allow Flying/Underwater Captures”
I love this suggestion, especially if the new captures include many, many new wild pets to be captured. Underwater, at least - I’m not sure how practical flying battles would be.
- “Incentives for Same-Type Teams”
The idea to add a buff when using a Family team sounds plausible, but I can;t think what it should be. The examples given are tiny, like +3% damage or +1% Speed, and I don’t see that they would make any difference. OTOH, if you crank them up too far, they become a mandatory meta. I’d have to see a concrete set of suggestions to give any useful comment.
- “Rebalance the Racials”
My standard question to anyone suggesting a rebalancing is: what exactly do you suggest? The nerf to the Undead racial was successful, and removed the family as an outlier. Maybe Aquatics and Crickets could use a small buff? But again, we’d have to kick specific numbers around the community in discussion to get a clear view.
- “Battle Tower or Tournament”
This is like an extension of the dungeons, with RNG tamers. IF we had a pleasant environment, which the dungeons after the CT definitely did not, I wouldn’t hate it, but the specified targets seem uninteresting
Like every seasoned battler, I have teams saved for every battle in the game - multiple teams, in many cases. Face me with Mari or Cymre and I don’t even have to think. It’s not interesting.
The no-heal condition, together with an unknown gauntlet of opponents, is an addition, but I’m not sure it’s a good one here. First, we can ofc do the logout->bandage->login sequence. I’ve never been sure whether Blizzard added that deliberately, or whether it’s a bug, but either way it nullifies the no-heal constraint. But then, suppose that loophole is closed, what is the effect? Personally, I have three of most of the most used pets, but it is certainly a disadvantage for people who prefer to keep just one.
- “Raid-style Battle or Multiplayer”
Me: NOOOOOOOOOOOO!! Not that!!!
I understand that the idea sounds cool. It does to me as well. But do you really want to PuG a party to do a pet battle? and then give instructions to the members, and find halfway through that someone doesn’t have the Microbot yoiu need? 
LF3M FOR PET GROUP. WILL INSPECT FOR PETSCORE. S/S FIMP REQ!!!
- “Questlines or Dailies from Pets”
OK, that’s a pretty safe suggestion. 
I liked the Little Scales questline, and would welcome more.
- “Glimmerogg Snail Racing Pets Showcase”
It was an interesting idea here, and, again, I would like to see more of it.
- “A New Celestial Tournament or New Contenders”
The Celestial Tournament was the high point of pet battling, AFAIAC. Beautiful, especially since I was approaching it with a starter roster of pets. An eternal perfect Sunday afternoon. Ahhh, good times. 
I was so nervous.
But I don’t see adding more contenders as a thing to do to this grand old institution. I would certainly enjoy a new tournament, in a similarly glorious ambiance, but that’s what the dungeons were, minus the pleasant environment.
- “Better Weeklies”
Well, yes. The random minor challenges for the Trading post, like beat the Reach legendaries with a team of two Dragonkin, are pleasant, and challenges like “Defeat the celestial battle with pets from BFA and Dragonflight only” also sound interesting. Blizzard would have to keep coming up with new ones, though.
- “New Cages”
I have no comment on this.I have no objection, but would not use it.
- “Incentives to Battle Trainers”
I’m not especially keen on the suggestions. Limiting the number of characters on which we can do dailies doesn’t seem like it will make anyone happy. Pseudo-Teleports to tamers might be popular with some people who are farming them, but to me it removes the situatedness of the tamers. I don’t visit Nishi often these days, but I always enjoy the journey when I do. It also takes from the value of the battle.
- “New Pet Incentivized Battles”
This is a variant of an idea that has been kicking around doever for PvP. Essentially, put a CD on pets so that after you use one in a tournament or PvP battle, you can’t use it again for some period. It sounds good in the abstract. but I remember a thread where a couple of us kicked around possible CDs to be used in PvP, and we could not arrive at a satisfying answer. Similarly, I think, it would be hard to find a satisfying CD system for dungeons or tournaments. But if someone laid out some specifics I’d be open to look at it.
- “Recapture Wild Pets for Additional Rewards”
I see the idea, but find it unconvincing. I would also fear the case where a quest sends everyone to some area to capture a Rare of a pet found in a small area.
- “Lore Book”
Nice idea, if they can space someone who can write engaging stories and verse. The Frostwolf Ghostpup always gets me.
- “PvP Queue Button Highlight”
I think the current placing for the button is fine.
- “PvP Communication”
As ao option, I have no objection. I wouldn’t bother using it myself.
- “PvP Queue Failsafe”
Falling back to an existing PvE battle, but being held to the team you queued for PvP with sounds … interesting. It’s not impossible, but I don’t see it working. If we had an “AI” opponent, then sure.
- “Weekly of “Kill 30 Opposing Pets in PvP” instead of “Win 10 Matches””
I think this was my idea originally, though it’s obvious enough that anyone might think of it. I started plugging it in Legion. It would help new PvP players, who can easily get creamed a dozen times without scoring one win. That’s discouraging. Every pet they kill along the way would at least move them a bit forward.
- “Customize Battle Animations”
I have no opinion on this, but no objection as an option.
- “Battlefield Standard”
This has been kicking around a long time. It has been suggested as a reward for some number of PvP wins.
- “Pick/Ban System for PvP Matches/Ranked PvP matches”
This runs into the General PvP Problem, which has been much discussed.
- “Pet Battle Mobile App”
For PvP, I don’t mind, though I’d hate to have to do PvP without Derangement’s and other addons, but I strongly object for PvE, where eliminating travel time would make it mandatory.
- “Ladder Tracking”
This runs into the General PvP Problem, which has been much discussed.
