Fortunately my bubble is still intact.

I will confess to not having a ton of experience with ret in arena play (some, not a ton), and none at high level, so I won't pretend to know if what you say is or isn't true.

What I will tell you is it's the same for:

mages
warlocks
rogues
hunters
shaman
probably more...

only those classes don't have plate, most can't equip a shield for a huge melee dmg mitigation boost, and cleanse can be huge when being trained. You seem dismissive of the bubble, but a lot of those classes don't have that. Have you ever arena'd as a lock? Unless you are very well geared, it is extremely frustrating. It's just like what you said, sans the part where you get 12 seconds to let your team help peel, or at least prepare for your eminent demise.