That’s great and I would generally agree. A lot of us here, like you, and including me, are (or were at some point) senior se’s and I’m sure you understand that it’s not always just “implement the feature, make it an option, and everybody’s happy.” You take the product as a whole into account. Any particular feature can possibly add or possibly detract from the product.

If that's true, then the preference system is not designed correctly. The whole point is that the product is a variable superset of user preferences, that setting a preference one way for one group does not affect the setting of the preference some other way by some other group. Thus "the product" is not affected as a whole other than to accommodate as many different styles as possible. If groups.io sets in stone some sort of preference, then it loses all of the groups who prefer the preference some other way. So insisting on some setting being some particular way does detract from the product by walling off a potential user base.

Best,

Glenn