I'm not sure it's necessarily one or the other. Bees aren't pets in the traditional sense, yet I know people who keep (or have kept) bees simply to have them, without any desire to get honey.
I was raised to be kind to animals, regardless of their size or status in life (wild, pet, or livestock), and I treat my bees that way. That is, I give them a good place to live, check them periodically for pests, disease, etc., and to make sure they don't need anything, and let them get on with being bees. It's better to not be emotional as you work with them (beekeeping often requires we do some fairly harsh things), but I try to be careful all the same. They are, after all, living things and my responsibility.
It's worth noting that here in Utah bees are classed as livestock, the same as cattle.