April 2018 was the last time I could easily find the devs mentioning the words Pet Gnomes and the arena.
Since then they seem to only mention (and seemingly now…will into existence…) that pet gnomes can only be found in PvP.
Including any mention of pet gnome bait that I looked into before possibly wasting $20 or asking others to.
So zero indication that pet Gnome bait would work in the arena, and zero indication that the devs laughably… unbelievably?.. Forgot that pet gnomes are supposed to be able to be found in the arena and therefore FORGOT to tell the 3rd party company responsible for the arena revamp and we get what we have here Luke.