Ifrit takes time away from DPS when you have to continually move him out of AOE around the boss. Caster-type pets are much easier to manage than Attacker-type pets :/.

I think these two pets might do about the same sort of dmg anyway, but I find it hard to keep up with managing Ifrit when I'm working hard on dps-ing things down .

It also might be down to personal preference too, but I do agree OP, I hate idiots who tell you how to play when they don't even have level 1 in the class >.>.