I think it’s due to the method they follow for collecting feedback, metrics and harvest of statistics. It is all so mechanical so to speak and questions are generalized for public use; simple polls and some metrics sometimes fail to catch all the details or direction that fans actually want. In the end, it turns to a guessing game or trial and error for the developer to interpret the voice of the masses then finally come up with a solution.
Remember years ago, when some fans sounded their wish for playing Classic WoW, but Allen Brack, the former president of Blizzard at that time, talked down to them? Why he did this? He just knew that World of Warcraft got to the point it is today, by the fan feedback. Players have shaped it as it is today by filling up mass amount of polls, gave feedback and now a few fans ask to get back to “the roots”? If I were Brack himself, I’d call this unimaginable as well, and could have the very same kneejerk reaction to question it at the first glance. Not saying former president was perfect or something, but giving you a look to his thought process on this blunder.
To summarize; they actually ask people what they want, but those kind of polls usually sent to players who spend most of their time with Blizzard products. They do this to be objective, because who else would be eligible to give feedback but someone who spent time with the game for more hours than well above average?
Alas, they’re still bound by other limitations such as minding the sustainability of systems (ie. online DRM, algorithms and loops), or interpreting the answers to widely generalized questions in their polls to find a solution to an almost non-existent problem, personally. Hence, the quality they thrived years ago might not be there.
This doesn’t apply to Blizzard only, though. Many other companies fell in the same category of “their quality isn’t so good anymore” once they’re in the big league. There’s always going to be a slight miscommunication between large companies and their customers; the important part, for me at least, that they keep trying.