“Everything is amazing and no one is happy.”

[Sigiria]

Take a sample of something and show if it is a trend or not. A sampling of 2000 people, with an accounting of bias, is a statistically valid sample.

It really isn't unbiased though since in the case of a forum that sample is made of people that went out of their way to talk about something they see as an issue. You take something like the summoner rework, people that are happy or just ok with it don't have any reason to say anything about it while people that are unsatisfied will search for a place to express their sentiment and might end up creating their thread or find one that did to add their voice to.
You can't really use that as a metric for how many people are enjoying the new summoner. It's like taking a satisfaction survey through the refund hotline.

If SE wanted a more accurate sample they would just do a survey at the connection screen like they did during the 1.0.
Right now they seem to just use the forum to hear out complaints and use their own judgment to decide which point is relevant and which one is not. Considering the game keep steadily growing, I'd say they figured out what's the best course of action for their game despite the outcries of doomsayers on the forum anytime they announce something new.

[Gemina]

If SE wanted a more accurate sample they would just do a survey at the connection screen like they did during the 1.0.

They don't even have to do that. Throughout our journey, we are asked on at least a couple of occasions if it was worth it, and if it has been fulfilling. The thing is, the question is not asked in search of a response from you. It's reflective and meant for you to determine the value of the time you have spent with FFXIV. That includes your time on the official forums as well.

The way I see it is that to create something that becomes so massive that you can assign an AI to ask a perplexing question to the targeted demographic about the time spent in their world is a marvelous feat within itself. A survey of player satisfaction can't provide any kind of reliable accuracy that could contradict what they already know. They know they have a good thing going on with FFXIV, and they also know that it can continue to be improved upon.