So how would you design a well-working system to make data-driven decisions rather than guesses? Most collection methods are notoriously bad, but partial collec

So how would you design a well-working system to make data-driven decisions rather than guesses? Most collection methods are notoriously bad, but partial collection is also bad since we now have to somehow put a weighing factor on presumed absent data, which turns choices into guesses again. I think this is a really hard problem, and simply trying to guess in the dark as to what people want isn't the smartest way to go about finding the path forward / priorities / improvements / defects. It also isn't something that we had in the past, because when we used to buy the IDE, buy the compiler, and then build software, sell that software, and let everyone know what cool tools we used, you'd have sales figures that would inform the creators how the tools were used. Now, the tools are available to everyone, anonymously, and everyone has an opinion on how well it works for them, but doesn't have the time to write a well-written report every time a release happens.