it can feel that way yes , on important matters thro tickets they really help , they most likely are fed up with ppl crying about silly things because we all here act like children.
as for updates we always wanted fast updates because we compare the speed to other servers , justac always deliver slow updates but most of them are bangers.
Recent update was stun, from all the suggestions and tears they picked to focus that one , meaning they are reading but their decision making on what to focus are not solely based on tears of players , they probably judge updates more internaly how it would effect the game and not how players want it to be.
i think its less community based server running , or they are just being super careful with their decision/implements , i don't like the idea in my head that after all these decades of being online server,they would just jump the ship

in long run the 8/8 gears and players harassing players reduced the player population,
updates was never fast here nor the communication with the community
i would not mind a different switch on staff communication with community and taking more risks experimenting with new updates, after all these years maby that's what this servers needs now.