I wonder if it helped if devs would give some clear feedback that would state, for example, this:
- priority of the feature
- high - we want this asap - usually means most artists would appreciate it and it happens in some often used tool/feature/etc. (must be in Krita’s goal)
- medium - will need to be done at some point (needs to be in Krita’s goal)
- volunteer - meaning if a volunteer comes up with good implementation, it will be merged, most probably
- low - for things outside of Krita’s goal, possibly even if a volunteer implements it, it might not be merged (I doubt there would be many examples, but it’s good to have)
- time and difficulty (low/short, medium, high/long; two separate assessments since there are things that are difficult but short, or easy but time-consuming)
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readiness
- ready - developer can just jump straight in and develop it (for example a new, very clear option in some tool, or it has good mockups and looks very sensible - all problems must be only technical)
- not ready yet
- either it’s not clear how to implement it (needs design, mockups, etc.)
- or the feature/change is a bit controversial, or needs more discussion with artists
Would that help in communication?
I personally think it might, because for example, sometimes features are very good, sensible, probably even mentioned multiple times already, it’s just that no one worked on it yet. Or, other times, it’s clear people want the feature, but it’s not exactly clear to me how it should be implemented (eraser icon anyone? 
). So, a dev account with this kind of summary would, potentially, give the idea what’s next: should there be more discussion, or maybe you need to just wait until it happens, or the idea probably won’t be entertained for some reason. And it might gives an idea how long it will take until it’s implemented: short, easy tasks might be implemented asap if some developer notices it when they have some time, while long, difficult tasks might take longer.
On the other hand, I’m a bit worried that clearly stating “nah, this is low priority, sorry” even with a reason might not be met positively. On the other-other hand, if right now some people feel like devs are “shutting down” ideas by not confirming them or promising to work on them soon, then that’s a bad situation as well… Clarity might still be preferable. What do you think?
Using the threads you mentioned as examples: (click to unroll)
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What makes Krita's canvas operations feel so "wrong"? - that is definitely difficult (all input-related tasks are, in my personal opinion ), medium-length, ready, with medium priority.
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Krita's higher bit depth color handling is unusable, and it affects you even if you don't use it. - this is more tricky, it has three parts:
- one is already done (gradients work the way you wanted, at least they seem to in my tests)
- second one (filter layers) is difficult, medium-sized, high priority, but kinda unready because it would change the internal design of Krita, so there should be a discussion with Dmitry present, and possibly it needs another solution than what you suggested (so the discussion should be with artists and not just among developers, so it’s not only a technical issue), so I wouldn’t consider it a task ready to implement
- last one (export) is medium difficulty, medium time, medium or high priority, and ready.
- I added a comment there since I had more things to say but there is no point in writing them here instead of in its ow topic.
- Add more axis to the 'fish eye' perspective ruler. - easy, medium or small-sized, medium priority (only medium and not high because fish-eye is a bit niche), ready. And the reason you got no reply from developers is probably because they/we missed it. Or someone looked, saw that it’s a valid request, but they can’t implement it right away, and didn’t comment because they couldn’t promise anything.
- QOL request: Have translation transformations act the same as the move tool - #10 by tiar was a recent regression, if I understand correctly, so it has the highest priority. It was also difficult (all transform tool related things are, for me), short and ready.
Also good thing you mentioned the fisheye axis request, I am working on assistants right now and I went through feature requests on the forum to make my TODO list, and this task didn’t appear simply because it lacked “assistant” word. I will add it now (though, interestingly, I already got a request to make fish eye axis in different colors).
(Which also shows how old feature requests might still show up later when someone starts to work on a specific topic).