In reply to alex.

You're right that most of the volunteers who moderate the support forums do not work on core but many of them are liaisons to the core team. For example, if specific issues are raised in different threads or patterns are determined, members of the support team will forward the threads and information to the core team. The WordPress.org support forums are for giving and receiving support, not for airing grievances or general discussions of WordPress.

Opening a TRAC for issues isn’t much more useful. There are outstanding TRAC requests that go back years, and have never been fully addressed or resolved.

How about this one from six years ago? There has been a significant effort from core contributors like Chris Christoff who have been going through the massive backlog of Trac tickets to either punt, close, or update them. Filing Trac tickets should be done to address or discuss a specific issue with WordPress. Again, not to air grievances but to be as specific as possible and either suggest solutions to the issue or attach a patch to the ticket that contains a fix.

If none of the communication channels mentioned by Hugh Lashbrooke fits your need, I suggest writing your two cents in a blog post or two and then telling me about it as I'll help spread the word.

Everyone wants the core team to create the version of WordPress that's tailored specifically for them and their clients but that isn't how WordPress is developed. End user needs come first followed by developer tools. If WordPress is not satisfying the needs of you or your clients because of it's development cycle or it's not adding the right features you need, perhaps it's a good time to look for a different solution.

Too many people get stuck in the rabbit hole where they air grievances about WordPress until their blue in the face and upset at the world. It's ok to move away from WordPress as your goal is to provide the best solution to your clients as possible. This isn't to say you can't complain or raise issues with WordPress, it's just that there comes a point where it makes the most sense to move away.