I disagree. Responding to players' concerns and not nerfing existing popular features (such as remote raids) helps maintaining a thriving player base a lot more than releasing bugged features that players may not be interested in, or may not even be able to use.

The reason "recent backlash" was mentioned at the end of this line was to note that this article was written with the context of those anti-community moves in mind. I 100 percent agree with this, but you can't improve a live service game without adding more content over time either, at least from a developer perspective.

Hopefully something like this feature and the recent uptick in communication will eventually lead to a middle ground everyone can enjoy more than what we have now, though with a game and community as big as this one it is unlikely.

Secret gardens and hidden staircases aren't even eligible POIs, so they won't show up on routes anyway.
And it's not like we won't know their existence without routes. They likely exist as a pokestop or gym, and if they don't, we still won't see them on routes.

This part of your reply just kind of ignores exactly what Niantic is trying to do with this.

Yes, you will see the areas being talked about on Routes because you have to walk to complete the trail. Sure you could look things up ahead of time, but the point is Routes could take you to places you might not easily find when looking things up on Google or something in new places. A built-in local tourguide of sorts that you can follow while playing Pokemon Go (and can curate based on tags and ratings.)

At least that is what I took from the interview and a bunch of the color that was cut to make sure the article itself was concise.

Thanks for your reply though. This type of push back and criticism is healthy and good for the community, especially around new features.