do the gurus actually look at this forum?

No one said they do not lurk in the forums at all. They are MORE active on on Twitter. They are also aware of quite a few bugs, and they are working on them. You can't expect them to fix all bugs at once. Some are more easy to fix others need more time, and some others get more complicated as the game progresses and need even more time. Or do you want them to half fix stuff just to release a patch? And trust me interesting threads with ideas and feedback always reach them one way or another. They can't though pop in and say "nice idea we'll try to implement" they are under NDA for all future content. The info they can share is very limited. And they do listen. How many of us have been asking for toddlers? Pets? Seasons? Terrain tools?laundry? How do you think they know what the community wants if not by lurking in the forums or somehow having an idea on what's been discussed in the forums? If you are expecting a patch with all the fixes and a pack with all the features , I'm sorry you'll need to wait for a decade, unless they turn into machines and start working 27/7 without having time to either lurk on the forums or even Twitter.
Guys come on, you want them to be active in the forums, communicate with us on every thread , give us all the features we are asking for, the way we want them ,by the time we want them , completely flauless, fix all the bugs immidiately, and keep us informed about everything they r working on. They are not super human guys.

PS tagging them in threads is a good idea for them to easily find the thread and respond if they can, instead of them blindly searching around the forums when they are lurking.