CityPlace has really morphed into officer work support retail. That said the pet store always did feel out of place. The mall itself had a street level door for a long time near the current Shark Club street level entrance.
As for the Eaton's annex the stories from my dad make me think he went back to the days that what is now CityPlace was the Eaton's catalogue warehouse (?). Also pretty sure back in the day at least the annex portion also included retail in the basement.
In terms of the Eaton's Place movie theaters, they were a bit smaller than the Towne but from memory the experience was fairly similar.
The change in CityPlace is to the point the old MPI staff cafeteria that was still there about 15 years ago seems to be gone now likely shifting demand to the food court.
Going forward, I think the best move for CityPlace would be to open up the Hargrave street level units to have patios. They definitely have a master plan at play and are executing it. The center court Reno seems to have been done to perhaps host gatherings of some sort? If we are really lucky maybe Eastern Chrysler will reopen their satellite dealership there too