That, and feedback that they genuinely enjoyed things that the rest of us hate.

Microsoft heard from hundreds of users who were heartbroken when Clippy was removed from Microsoft Word.

Yes, it does. It is widely thought to be true and certainly matches my experience at statistical significance.

Keep in mind the adage "you get what you measure". If you optimize for CTR, you are not necessarily optimizing for user satisfaction/loyalty.

Case in point: Netflix's auto-play feature used to drive me bonkers, so much that I would try other streaming services first. How could they think this feature was a good idea? The only plausible explanation I've heard is that they were optimizing for user engagement. Users click around more to prevent the video from auto playing.

You are critiquing your own question, which I was answering directly.

What I said also applies to any other metric, including (for example) income generation.