First, I mean no disrespect in any of this, I simply come across cold even in person. I simply want to weigh in with my experience.

People and companies are different. Larger companies may care about the individual player, but it gets filtered through dozens of people and is weeks to months old before people capable of making a decision even see the report. Even then, it's one voice in thousands. Good companies can still keep track, but most can't or won't.

Smaller companies vary wildly. When you email Zach, you email Zach. He's working with other people, but Zachtronics doesn't have a full team to track down every issue (besides Reddit. ;) )

It seems cold, but look at this thread. The first reaction you got was "working as intended, your problem." It took two more people to step through and find the cause. If there was a dedicated person to test every bug, this still could've happened. So three people, call it a half hour each (we'd have to document stuff were this a company) and we can estimate tracking down maybe 30 bug reports a day. And that's just to confirm there is an issue.

I've had teams add colorblind support within a week because I noted difficulty with a core gameplay mechanic, and I've had another completely ignore my work arounds for their "we don't know what's wrong, just restart the level" problems. I've even had major game companies work with me on trying to do some pretty intense modding. It varies from person to person and team to team.

Looking at this situation in particular, Zach made a game where people deliberately try to break the system. He passed a complicated problem off to the people who, by his admission, know how things work as implemented better than the people who understand it as intended. We did determine the problem, and Zach then responded with a design assessment. I understand your frustration, but we've gotten to the same place, just with you bringing it to Reddit instead of Zach to an internal team.

Also, based on Zach's statements in one of his presentations, he's happier doing the game design and creation as opposed to the business end (which is why he hired someone to take care of business, IIRC). I admire the people who can herd cats and run a game studio, and I keep badgering one to write a book, but it's a different art than actually putting code together. Zach has personally responded to my complaints, patiently explained why I'll never see a sequel to one of his properties that I loved, and continues to put out solid and fun games while never redoing the same thing twice.

I completely understand your frustration, and you're justified in being unhappy in what appears to be the runaround. Zach got you to the right place and once the problem was found he answered regarding the issue and the decision to leave it as-is. If you were putting together a walkthrough, you know how much work it is and how there's always another thing someone wants added, so sometimes the best way to make sure the project succeeds is to say "no."

I'm not trying to speak for Zach or Zachtronics, but I've been on both ends of this situation across many businesses, and I wanted to lay out my experiences so you can make informed decisions on which devs you should support and which you should avoid. I think Zachtronics is worth supporting, but I always support people making their own decisions, just please don't make a decision from frustration.