If you're unhappy with this game then unsub... forever.

[Myrany]

You might be thinking of it too simply. They're going to look at past trends at similar points in a development cycle. Some deviation is expected of course but only in small amounts.

If normally they would have 30% of the player base participating in Savage raiding during a certain patch cycle but that number has dropped to 10%, they're going to want to know why that content has lost 2/3s of its normal participants. That's when they're going to start checking feedback. If it's only dropped from 30% to 27%, then they they don't have much reason to care.

I have always suspected with most games it is a combination of what you are saying and the following.

What demographic of player makes us the most money?
<checks data>
Ok how many players can we expect to lose if we make x change to cater to that demographic?
<checks historical data>
Do we have enough new players coming in to cover the loss?
<checks data>

here it can slide into What will sell well in the store to make up the loss or even increase revenue?
<checks data>


In short if changes are not happening there is not enough lost revenue to justify them.