I think this is wrong in many ways.
Warlocks were like the worst class in pvp in the beginning of WoW... and yes people were way worse than they are now, that's ok, but that's a practical fact that one has to consider when making assumptions. In comparison to other classes, they were underpowered - i quote - "warlocks... are mushrooms", World of Roguecraft...
Later after some things were nerfed (AP), Bugfixes, gear normalization and death coil buff, Warlocks were very strong, if not the best 1on1 class in the game, even withouth strong gear. I remember at the time (2005), I was Rank 10 on my warlock and rarely lost a duel (without playing even close to today's level of skill) against my premade rank 13+14s. That was the case even before hitting rank 10, rank 7+ was enough to kill anyone. Just needed the Soullink skillbuild and enough stamina. Had that stupid scythe with stamina
Wasn't even exalted in any of those battleground factions.
So I guess, lots of misinformation in this thread. And hunters were never underplayed, they got lots of love in early wow. Nowadays, hunters are even one of the most elitist classes, because they try to make up for bad dps stats...