Felar means:
* Feral growl and catnip. Shifters don't have a lot of ways to improve their damroll while in form -- gearing for dam doesn't work.
* More hp than a human. Less hp than a gnome, but unlike gnomes you can be good or evil. I utterly despise being neutral; your mileage may vary.
* Less vulnerable out of form because paws of the cheetah. I once played a felar shifter (Aronar) who didn't shapeshift at all and I was still able to tank the destructor (for an invoker who couldn't tank but fried it with spells from behind my back).

Double util means:
* You don't get a penalty to your minor focus forms. Solid 20 per tick for both of your top tier forms (17 with muscle memory).
* Having two different foci can result in wildly different combos depending on what forms you get. Some of them are unplayable. Double utility is pretty much guaranteed to yield a playable combo, at least for my playstyle; again, your mileage may vary.
* Utility is the only focus where there are many useful lesser forms, and going double util maximizes your chances to get sweet stuff such as mantis, giant leech or two-humped camel (Laeden had all three and used them all extensively at hero).