User blog comment:VeryUnknownFan/"Conveniences" that made players last a lot longer than usual (whether by writing, production, etc)./@comment-24952355-20170523035449/@comment-22535514-20170523040410

Others have called them pets many times before, so I don't understand the issue with it now.

That whole explanation was still a random convenience to eliminate Sam over, which is why it was added. From a writing perspective, they put anything they could that would cause Sam to be eliminated with as little question or care about it.