why is this forced on us and not an option?

[Wildsprite]

I dont use hotbar 1 for skills or didn't, my skills are set on hotbars 9 and 10 next to the party list, I was using it for things that can be done while mounted.
I was using it to call my mounts and call and dismis my choco compainion till this stupid non option. I prefer being able to dismount that way.
what I'm doing with the hotbars is besides the point, IF you have the pet hotbar enabled this feature should not be. <--this is my gripe

Edit:

I suggest disabling the Pet Hotbar if the redundancy bothers you. Under Character Configuration > Hotbar Settings. But if you use a class that has a pet (arcanist/summoner/scholar), it may seem redundant but it's not really a problem IMO. If anything, it makes things easier because Hotbar 1 is usually assigned to Keybinds. Just click the shortcut key on Hotbar 1 instead of the one on the Pet Hotbar.

Edit: this suggestion wont work for me as I prefer the keyboard/mouse pet hotbar regardless of if it is locked or not.