I know what helps because I am human and I have feelings just like the people who work at PD do too. If somebody was so insulting to me after I created such a great game I wouldnt be so inclined to improve anything for that person.
Sorry to break your little bubble but that's not how a business actually works.
If many customers (and even a hardcore fan is just another customer) aren't satisfied with a product and express it (even in less than polite or adult terms) they will have to listen to secure a future for the series (they know which side their bread is buttered).
Whether one individual insults PD for whatever reason, they won't therefore not work on the reason he's or she's not satisfied with because of those insults.
Only when the reason is not shared by many customers they won't improve it purely because he or she is the only one not satisfied, that reason simply will go unnoticed, not because of the language used.
Don't overestimate the impact of one individual, only as a collective we could perhaps make an impact, however the way we choose to express it.
In short, numbers speak, whatever the quality ( and they are not unfamiliar with this concept.......).
Oh and another thing, we shouldn't have to worry about being "ungrateful" in the first place for several reasons.
One is that PD aren't doing it for free (and that's an understatement, they earn bucketloads of money), another one is that they themselves raised the bar (and hyped it) and in my opinon have been very economical with the truth regarding a lot of aspects, these things combined have made that the expectations have sky-rocketed over a long period of time (and it's very easy to say in hindsight this is our own fault which ofcourse it is but in my opinion not exclusively).
Lastly, and not unimportant, I'll agree with you that GT5 isn't a just cold industrial commodity aimed to sell large numbers only but partly a creative product or an artistic vision.
But every artist can expect criticism when showing or selling his work, and that's part of the deal, whether they like it or not (and they expect and accept it as part of the job much more readily than a lot of so called fans seem to do).
And although I'm a huge fan of the GT-series since the very first one and have always supported and defended most things they did in the past, this time I seriously doubt the vision they applied to the last one.
Only looking at the whole Standard/Premium debacle or looking at the choices made which cars are Premium convince me something went horribly wrong during development whatever supposed insiders say that this is what they planned from the start.
Looking at past GT-games and reading several interviews with Kaz during the last 5 years I have a hard time accepting this is the true vision he aimed for.
I doubt this is due to what he really wanted but more to do with poor planning and being overconfident they could pull off the initial plans, if not I think I might have misjudged him all along.
