Re:This is Great News (Score 1)

Developers do have a say in what products get developed -- they vote with their feet.

If I start a company that develops software you don't want to write, you're probably not going to come work for my company.

In a for-profit company, someone has to figure out what the customer wants. Sometimes engineering can do this, other times its sales, but it's usually the folks over in product marketing who do all the research. Letting the engineers vote on what features the product will have is going to take customers out of the loop. (Unless, of course, the engineers are developing for people who think exactly like they do.)

Companies who make things that nobody wants to buy typically go out of business (Masscomp, Kendall Square Research) or change their product line entirely to something they think people will buy (General Magic)