Funny you mention Microsoft because I used to see bug reports for Windows. I can tell you there was a ton of low quality "SOMEONE HACKED MY COMPUTER" or similar feedback (and sometimes just unintelligible ranting) that was completely inactionable or unreproducible. I otherwise do agree with your premise that large monopolistic businesses can sit on large swaths of feedback without worrying about competition - and that this is a problem.
However, for most software projects and businesses, the lack of repeated feedback is a signal that the issue isn't important.
As a user I would hope that the software author/publisher is prioritizing important problems. Closing one ticket is not indicative of organizational rot, as you say.
Funny you mention Microsoft because I used to see bug reports for Windows. I can tell you there was a ton of low quality "SOMEONE HACKED MY COMPUTER" or similar feedback (and sometimes just unintelligible ranting) that was completely inactionable or unreproducible. I otherwise do agree with your premise that large monopolistic businesses can sit on large swaths of feedback without worrying about competition - and that this is a problem.
However, for most software projects and businesses, the lack of repeated feedback is a signal that the issue isn't important.
As a user I would hope that the software author/publisher is prioritizing important problems. Closing one ticket is not indicative of organizational rot, as you say.