Illwinter is completely free to do whatever they want with their game. They CHOSE to make a game for our enjoyment (and their own) and we CHOSE to pay money to pay for it. It's nice that they listen to major points usually and make changes (commander scripting anyone?), but although pleasing customers is good for sales they aren't required, or even expected, to search through forum Posts for good ideas to implement.
From what I've heard most of the end game micro has been reduced already, as we now have:
*overview screens
*patrolling/taxes toned down
*easy scripting
and probably other things I forgot.
I think the text file output would be nice because it would be easier to implement, and it would allow you to find items or whatever you were looking for. I have no problem with Illwinter handing out the data for 3rd party programs to make pretty.
Maybe I can gather some support on this here rather than just having people tell Illwinter what to do.