I found the feedback really useful and it definitely influenced the development. Perhaps not the broader thrust of the story but many of the details, especially the romances, were tweaked following suggestions.
It was useful just to know what sort of thing readers were looking for in the story, so I could weight those areas appropriately. For example, when a number of people said they didn’t want to have to choose either the Christian and Muslim factions, I added more hedge-knight content and interactions with the atheist Golden Horde.
With IF, it’s hard to second-guess your readers and easy to overlook routes you might not think of taking yourself, so getting as many eyes on the game before release is very helpful.