There has not been a single major patch without a critical issue since Endwalker.

[MintnHoney]

well written critique

This is something that the average consumer would not be able to meaningfully provide, especially to the level that other consumers, as evidenced on these forums, demand. Typically a producer/provider/manufacturer/company/group does not require a thesis on how to improve their product before they consider customer feedback, because they know that's unrealistic for them to expect from every consumer and it would be unrealistic for them to be expected to digest such feedback.
Instead, most just expect their consumers to either like or dislike their product(s) to varying degrees, and hope for small, but specific tidbits as to what needs to be improved to garner additional interest and retention. For example, "PVP is bad" or "The Endsinger tastes like feet." The feedback may not be very specific, or even make sense, but they have key components listed which can be reviewed for issues.

That being said, laundry-lists of grievances are more specific and nuanced than those examples, and there are quite a few posts that do come with explanations and suggestions for improvements, but I guess those just don't count because of the "other consumers" I mentioned earlier.
Oh well, I guess.

[Lauront]

This is something that the average consumer would not be able to meaningfully provide, especially to the level that other consumers, as evidenced on these forums, demand. Typically a producer/provider/manufacturer/company/group does not require a thesis on how to improve their product before they consider customer feedback, because they know that's unrealistic for them to expect from every consumer and it would be unrealistic for them to be expected to digest such feedback.
Instead, most just expect their consumers to either like or dislike their product(s) to varying degrees, and hope for small, but specific tidbits as to what needs to be improved to garner additional interest and retention. For example, "PVP is bad" or "The Endsinger tastes like feet." The feedback may not be very specific, or even make sense, but they have key components listed which can be reviewed for issues.

That being said, laundry-lists of grievances are more specific and nuanced than those examples, and there are quite a few posts that do come with explanations and suggestions for improvements, but I guess those just don't count because of the "other consumers" I mentioned earlier.
Oh well, I guess.

Well said. I do get the impression a lot of posters expressing views like that have never seen how larger businesses process feedback. Granted, this applies to smaller ones to some degree too, but there is no such luxury as expecting that it will be well written or structured, and it is the business's job to analyse it, understand it and then seek out further insight from it using the tools at its disposal, which in SE's case, are considerable. Just sticking their hands up in the air because some criticism is not well worded is not good enough - they're happy to solicit feedback at the end of a subscription, which I can only imagine is going to be more terse and minimal than what they'll find on this forum for the most part. They provide this venue to solicit feedback, it is incumbent upon them to make sure it is put to good use for that end.