Adding an extra layer of people between the customer and developer is certainly a good idea as it requires a completely different skill set to communicate with

Adding an extra layer of people between the customer and developer is certainly a good idea as it requires a completely different skill set to communicate with a customer and troubleshoot their issue than for being a developer. Like I always ask my mom before I even begin to troubleshoot her problems "Have you tried turning it on and off again?" "Did you really turn it on and off again and not only open/closed the display?" Our support people, when asked for a forward to a developer afaik often jokingly say "you don't want to talk with one of our developers" and I think it's true for most issues. Splitting the people that write software, fix bugs for that software and make sure their system is available throughout the night is terrible from a responsibility point of view. It makes you not give a crap, while developing new features. That's just human nature.