Flyertall, I do not agree on your rather dark view on this FT discussion.

It is true, you cannot find the general view of all FT'ers by reading this thread. But is there any place where you can find that? The poll?!? A few hundred votes in total, and a few more votes for one than the other. That is no gauge of FT general opinion. I think the only thing it says is that not much has changed since the last time it was polled/discussed.

Also, did you ever think of why the poll and the discussion differs? Participating in a poll (just like giving a like) is something that you can do with very little effort. So among the voters there will be many that haven't spent much time thinking about the question. All they did was stating "yeah, I like it" or "Nay, don't like it".
There is nothing wrong with that, and it is a gauge of some sort, but it does not move anything forward.

Now, participating in the discussion takes a lot more effort. You need to think about why you like/dislike the idea, find some arguments for it and so on. Naturally much fewer people will take the time to add to the discussion.

I too am surprised by the numbers of proponents to the idea being so few in this thread, but I recent your suggestion that proponents are treated as cockroaches.
The opponents of the idea have been articulate, yes. That is not a bad thing - many issuses have been brought to the table and if I recall correctly, nsx said he needed months to analyse and adress them to get a better proposition on the table.

So if opponents kept silent and nsx would move the suggestion unaltered forward to TB based on a poll with tiny majority - would that be a good thing?

If the answer is "yes, it would be a good thing because then I get my like button which I want but can't be bothered to make a case for" then I feel sad for the future of FT as a discussion board.