There is a difference between them being friends and just thinking they are fellow human beings that should be treated with respect. You can say something critical without being rude about it.

And then there is whether the criticism is even constructive, which means can a person reasonably take what is said and use it to improve anything - does it acknowledge the challenges and difficulties involved in addressing it, does it provide a reasonable and realistic suggestion on how to achieve it and overcome any challenges involved? Does it take into account the fact that the game is catering to multiple types of people interested in different things, rather than just catering to people only interested in one thing ie. raiding.

If the constructive arguments are not provided then they are brought up in the debate later on. Someone has to play the role of seeing it from a developer's point of view and someone has to play the role of seeing it from a player's point of view to see where the debate ends up. Otherwise it is too one-sided and doesn't consider the counterarguments a developer might have, so why wouldn't they just dismiss it then.