There are two axes of criticism here:

Stack Overflow is again using "in-band" communication leverage of its Q&A meta-channel--which is trusted on good faith to be spiritually belonging to the volunteer community that built quite a lot of it--to do promotion for projects that are tangents. Such posts would be looked on harshly if non-SE-employees posted their own similar ideas. If Stack Overflow is considered a system which has finite resources to spend on addressing issues--expanding into new areas is not what the online MMO Q&A game addicts want right now. They want those resources applied to get the problems in the game patched up.

(It's funny that the sidebar advertisements promoting the role playing stuff remind me of how this really is very, very similar to trying to manage a D&D campaign. You want to get everyone to play nice, to keep people from walking away from the table. I think the stakes are higher here as I consider it education and a piece of planetary-scale problem solving, but games educate too in a way.)

I think #1 is foundational. In that vein, I have re-entered an off-topic close-vote in protest on this basis. Of course I'm not blind and know you run the site and can delete any vote I raise or post I make. But...I'll point out that you do control the ad space...and you have a blog. No one will get on your back any more than the "get a goob at Stack Exchange" ads that you don't charge yourself for (well, in a sense you might, if you had paid ads you're not running). But worth it for more clicks and less backlash.

Posting in-band here isn't fitting. There are other voices saying: "we are giving you feedback that you're encroaching on the part of the space that was promised to the community to manage issues of the game they bought into." Please think again the agreements of those coming to play at a D&D table, and the risks of appearing unfair to the point that people want to walk away. You benefit much more when people say "that was a good game, we'll be back next week!" vs. knocking all the pieces off the table and saying "YOU, SIR, ARE A TYRANT!"

(Though that can make for its own funny melodrama. Depends how zen you want to get. I'm trying to stay in character, a little.)

As for #2, that's fuzzy. I wouldn't like people telling me what I should or cannot do with my money and time; outside of pre-existing agreements, where I should live up to my promises. If someone told me I was a programmer and shouldn't make videos I'd inform them quickly that I left an engineering job in Seattle and went to attend film school in LA in 2005. Video isn't perfect for all things, but until we get our Diamond Age primers we're stuck with video, Ajax-Rube-Goldberg, and some Bret Victor stuff (which is often well-shared by means of video, for anyone doubting the value of the medium.)

So I don't feel as strongly that anyone has a right to mandate that SE doesn't use its investment dollars to expand; that's outside the "implied contract". I can only share a personal feeling that you may take or leave. That feeling comes from the observation that growing pains are overwhelming, yet I have not perceived the kind of "continuous advancement" from the site tech there once was. It's a spooky kind of Craigslist feeling, almost like the original developers died a long time ago--and now maintenance zombies run it, because nothing is changing at a speed one would call impressive.

I love unicoins and hats as much as the next person, but why haven't there been more trials of strongly supported feature-requests? I'll still plug mine as deserving at least a shot to see if it can make a statistical dent.

Pre-flight screening checklist for first/early posts--adaptively pick three items, tune with metrics

If you would just promote your video projects and women in technology ideas through the ad space, and announce new features at a rate that everyone felt the wheels of progress were turning...I don't think anyone will care if you make videos or buy solid gold computer desks. Yet the game has some implicit rules that the players feel you are breaking, and some of us are speaking up about it.