Preface - If Samuel wants us to take this elsewhere, I understand. But I would like to address this and in doing so maybe address something that bothers me about observations about this matter from other authors as well …
As I said, I do understand their use as tools for improvement. Given time and practice, often you can glean things to help your future development.
There is no easy way to build a true feedback network. It is much easier with tools like Paetron and Tumblr today then it was 10 years ago, but it still takes a lot of time and effort to do this properly. The things I see @Eric_Moser do, with attending local conferences and trying different promotional tactics are just a sample of the hustle often required to make things work, marketingwise. It is the same with feedback.
I disagree with you about reviews being “as close to a direct pipeline to what they want as anyone can manage.”
There are a lot of things that you, as an author, can do. For example, establishing a Tmblr for yourself as an author and for your project is one way that many here have discovered that really builds a feedback loop much more focused, much more relevant and much more truthful. It also is writing based so should not be as stressful or alien as other things that you can do.
Getting a focus group established for you project is also often a pretty easy thing for many that come here - convert your table-top/rpg group into a reader’s core … people you have been gaming with for years will be a much truer source for immediate feedback and the fact that many of these groups have migrated to discord makes it as simple as talking to them directly. Most of your friends would be honored to become an important part of your development.
These are just things that involve minimum effort that pay-off thousand-fold over using reviews as your pipeline to understanding what people want.
I’m sure experienced authors have writing circles and other resources they can help new writers explore and teach how to make…
Resources that are much better for feedback are just waiting to be utilized. Reviews made on the marketplace or Steam do have value but in my humble opinion, they do not deserve the weight that they are often given in this community.