Balancing Player Input and Developer Vision?

[wraggster]

Chris_Jefferson writes
"I work on a simple iPhone puzzle game called Combination. Probably the most frequent request I get from users is for an in-game hint system, to help them out on the harder problems. However, when I tried beta testing such a system, almost every user would just hammer the hint button as soon as they got stuck for longer than 30 seconds, spoiling (I believe) their enjoyment of the game. Should games programmers decide they know what's best for users, and not give them features they are crying out for? Has anyone ever seen a good middle-ground, where users are helped, but can't just skip their way through the entire game?"
This question can be generalized for just about any game that's being continually developed — where should the game's designer draw the line between responding to feedback and maintaining what they feel is is the greater source of entertainment?

http://games.slashdot.org/games/09/02/13/1128234.shtml

[mike_jmg]

Hint only when they're stuck on a certain point a certain amount of time, not just 30 seconds, and not triggered by a button.

Feedback doesn't have to go always wrong but also in the end the decision is up to the developer wether to include people's opinion or not

edit: I keep asking for infrastructure on Tekken DR, not only adhoc party, some kind of infrastructure mode within the game, even if I have to buy a whole new game IDC, in the end is up to the developers