I think "nobody" means "nobody on our design team". Also your point about high-level play being really poorly designed being a turn-off for some people.
They don't realise that staying put at this point will also make fans angry with the lack of direction?I suspect the reason for this is they've gotten themselves caught in a local minima: They're scared to death to make any big changes to the maneuver system because the fans might get angry with the new direction. It's just what happens when you go into game design without a vision, just tossing mechanics at playtesters and keeping what sticks.