I believe it would be best for the Devs to have a weekly poll on the launcher, asking players what they feel about X. They need some quantitative data to help them make more informed decisions. Saying "the players wanted this" is very hard to take, who did they talk to, how big was the sample? Listening to the forms, people talking in Limsa or 2/4 Chan is not going to give you clean data.

Polls, there easy, they work and poll often to get a better feel on how the players feel.