To clear up a lot of misinformation...

Soul Link is a trainable ability.
Hunters still have a minimum range.
Demonic Rebirth has a significant cooldown.
Warlocks still have a cast time to summon demons, but can dismiss them instantly.
Hunters can summon pets instantly, but have a cast time to dismiss them. They cannot switch pets in combat.
Call Stabled Pet has been removed since hunters can call any of their 5 active pets.
Ghostcrawler
Lead Systems Designer
No, because you have to dismiss a pet before you can summon a new one. You also need to rez a dead pet before you can dismiss it. It's possible that allowing all of that in combat is fine since it would take so long to actually pull off and in the meantime you could just have rezzed your pet (or healed an injured one rather than dismissing it).

On the other hand, dismissal no longer affects happiness in any way since the new model is you can swap them more regularly. Your pets just have to learn not to get all emo about it.
Ghostcrawler
Lead Systems Designer