I honestly considered to stop reading when I saw "Yoshida-san". He is lucky to have such dedicated fans as yourself that see everything he does positively. I want to make a few things clear:
- I do not think he does everything wrong
- I do think he cares about the game to certain extent
- I appreciate the level of communication he is trying to keep up
- I have no problem with the current cash shop
However, an increased level of communication with a gaming community also means that he should be able to deal with an increased amount of criticism. Gamers (and customers) will ALWAYS complain, there is just no way to satisfy everyone.
The problem I specifically have with how he handles the game is, that he has a set vision and is not very willing to go away from that vision. This could have many reasons, including monetization. No matter if we like it not, a game needs to make money to be kept up and running. And if there is one thing Yoshi is good at, it's finding ways to make money.
Just look at the cash shop. Yes, people might feel entitled to certain items because they pay a sub. Fact is: they are not. Having a game running only with subs is difficult at best, even a title as prestigious as "Final Fantasy" will have problems with that eventually, especially with the content schedule they are running (I explained this before and will not do so again). The cash shop offers unnecessary fluff that do not influence your progression in-game at all. This is what I expect from a cash shop in a sub game. If you want the fluff item, you pay for it. We still get plenty of them in-game anyway. If a mount you can't get in game and that you don't want to pay for, ruins your gaming experience, that's your problem.
As for him catering to the "loudest" voices. All he does is cater to the JAPANESE community and even then it is things that fit in his set vision. He only listens to the voices that are convenient for him. And no, he does not understand the community. Look at LoV. People wanted some small minion fight minigame.Maybe be able to challenge someone they stand next to and have their minions brawl. What we got was a convoluted system using DF.
I am not intending to bash on Yoshi, I am just being realistic. He can bring as much communication as he wants, if the content behind it is lacking, that won't help anything.