As with most things in life, the person who gets the short end of the stick tends to complain loudly about getting shafted. I call it the vocal minority, because I think people who don't think anything on the GDB is worth arguing about make up a large portion of our player-base. They're the great RPers you send kudos about -- They play the game, because they don't spend a chunk of their time complaining about how the game is broken.
No, that doesn't make people who complain about the state of the game idiots. As RGS pointed out, being passionate about the game and what you perceive as problematic is what has driven this game forward. Most complaints, or ideas and debates, have lead to progress and change -- Be they adding the 'change mood' command, or allowing alcohol timers to tick while logged out.
It seemed like Staff Avatars / Plots of Yore were shot straight from the hip -- Little to no fore-thought about the end result, and just 'fly by the seat of the pants'. The HRPT 2009 (2009? I feel like it was earlier, maybe i'm getting old) EOTW plots seemed this way too -- The game's ending anyways, so let's just roll with the punches! Let everyone and anyone do what they want.
Having played a "Super Secret Evil Villain" during those times, I can say with certainty that no one had any idea what was going on. Vague plots and missions that were varyingly too easy or absolutely impossible (Steal something from a Black Robe, find a very specific item on a different plane of existence) were passed down from the 'powers that be', with vast infrequency and little to no cohesive thread. Staff members that were our 'handlers' went missing for months on end, emails went unanswered, and it was basically a big cluster fuck.
Honestly, I couldn't be happier with how consistent and by-the-book current Staff and the Staffing policy are. I used to think emailing Staff, back in even 2006, was an exercise in futility. I got a note early on my account for sending in frivolous emails to the MUD account, but it was mostly because I got few to no responses, and thought if I carpet-bombed the MUD account, I might get something.
Now, requests are answered within a week, questions are answered, and if I need clarification, I can ask for it and expect a response. If I want to speak with an Admin, I can do that. A Producer, I can do that. It just needs to be for the right reason. The same could not be said five years ago, ten years ago, and so on. Furthermore, HRPTs and Staff Run Plots have much more focus, and seem like they are run by a professional gaming team. Each HRPT I experience seems better and better, with more thought put into it and behind it, and run with less and less hitches (and crashes, which is another improvement we all take for granted. Saturday Downtimes, anyone? Too many accounts logged in, anyone?)
This is what progress looks like, people. And we are definitely moving in the right direction.