The games changing, but towards what path is still to be seen. Suggestions in the past used to be taken seriously, banks was one, and was added, everyone liked it.
No one asked for plantation, it was worked on, made, but no one really liked it, it was meh, just something that seems to be there, it feels disconnected from the rest of the game. The devs fixes somethings on it, but nothing much was changed, and now it feels abandoned, left out and not cared for anymore.
Something seems to be wrong, would people look back at the times? And notice the changes? Maybe? But who cares, we might drift off to a spiked path just to be that little bit more special, but it's a spiked path for a reason, they are both path that goes to the same place, but why the spike?
What people wanted was not a simulator, people just wanted a pirate game, that is an pirate game, ships. I think they missed the mark a lot. The point is not for things to be cool or special, what people want is just something that would be fun to play in between daily life.
Take this with a grain of salt, maybe? Sugar? Black Pepper?