While I rarely participate in meta discussions I actively read what's happening and it is very frequent that discussions on meta do result in change to the site

While I rarely participate in meta discussions I actively read what's happening and it is very frequent that discussions on meta do result in change to the site in general. It is an effective instrument of change and is often very democratic. Somethings get a big NO from the dev team but you can guess that as a dev yourself not everything is doable/the direction the company is going.