yeah, they said that.
> rather than actually speaking to users about what they like and don't like
how do you suggest they talk to their users to do this? less than 1% of people invited to take a survey actually take the survey. however, when you say you want to remove something, those who use it make the effort to respond; at a far higher rate than would participate in a survey.
by saying they were going to remove the feature, they solicited better feedback than they would have gotten in any other way. if that was not intentional on some level, I would be surprised.
> I suspect that companies sometimes believe they can automate their way into quality designs, by relying on analytics, rather than empathizing deeply with their customers.
I suspect that some people will look for any excuse at all to share their opinion about the horrible new world with its horrible new ways as if only they and no one else knows what they are doing. I am not referring to you specifically, but your comment reminded me of just how often I see this "new ways to do things are always bad" sentiment and it is so wrong in so many ways.