To explain my case, the Problem of the Great CC Decline will be reiterated:
Here's where my case is made:
Why has (b) [maintain status quo of marginal modifications to the site] continued to occur?
1. It's the most profitable option. Contrary opinions on the site's future do not matter in the sense that these opinions have no instrumental value; they only have expressive value. In other words, your opinions don't change the owner's goal, which is (b). They mostly serve as a way for you to vent your frustration/praise. They may also alter the marginal modifications, which have no clear impact on stemming the Great Decline, so in reality such opinions are still expressive--not instrumental.
In this regard, your opinion does not matter; however, there's a hopeful twist:
2. The marginal modifications have largely been ineffective in affecting membership rates, but the rate of decline is still holding! How is this possible?!
It's from the expressive value of this site. The marginal modifications make you people bicker about largely pointless, superficial changes to the site. BUT, pointless bickering is much better than realizing that this site is DOOMED to DECLINE. If more people realized this, then they'd lose hope, thus becoming more likely to leave. But they don't leave, and they don't wish to realize this. They wish to indulge in the expressive value of bickering. This is how your opinion of CC matters.
