I don't frequent these boards as much as I used to, mostly because I moved out of state, and just haven't been able to play as much EDH, which leaves me a bit less inspired to brew/theorycraft.
You raise an issue that is a bit more complicated than people just not providing feedback. There are several factors:
People not wanting to put forth the effort to promote other people's decks. When enough people post their deck and then don't provide feedback to others, they are a drain on the system, not contributing anything. It's like Reddit where they have rules regarding content posting vs. commenting/contributing. Everyone is very "look at me" these days. It's the same way where people follow you on Twitter just because they want you to follow them, and then they will unfollow if you don't follow them back in a few days before trying again. This is the same thing. A lot of people just want to promote their own content, rather than engaging in community discussion.
This format is massive, and by that I mean that a ton of people don't play your archetype, much less your specific general. Not having information about meta/power level on top of that just makes it harder to craft feedback. I can look at a list that is more casual, and I can provide a ton of feedback just based off of card quality, i.e. running Path to Exile over Condemn or Counterspell over Cancel. However, for a lower powered deck, they may not want to include better quality cards, or they might be on a budget where they can't afford it. When it comes to a polished list with intricate interactions or combos that runs efficient tutors, removal, ramp, and just good cards in general, it is a lot harder to provide feedback if I have never played that list or necessarily even seen it be played. How am I supposed to know what every card does in that deck, or understand multiple roles that a card may play for your list or specific meta without reading a dissertation on your list or playing it myself?
Sites like EDHREC are more efficient in some ways, especially if the way you are playing a list is the way most other people play it. Very few people out there are reinventing the wheel. The only deck that I play that is really that far off from what everyone else runs is my Grimgrin list, because everyone runs him as zombie tribal, and I play attrition-based control. The thread that I made for him in 2012 had some decent success at getting interaction, but these boards were a lot more popular then. Now he's a legend that is 7 years old; it isn't like that many people are just picking him up that often when probably hundreds of other legends have been printed since then. If I want to update the list, EDHREC is going to be better for that than finding other people updating a list on here. Heck, looking at spoilers to see what cards might fit well is probably a better bet than finding someone discussing it in depth on here, or anywhere, outside of the most popular decks, or cEDH decks.
It takes a lot of time for someone to parse through a list to provide meaningful feedback, just for the person to tell you why they don't like your feedback, or they already considered those cards, but didn't like them. This is especially true for more polished lists, because they have gone through a dozen revisions from playtesting, and are already at a sort of "reduced to practice" stage.
Like I touched on above, some legends just aren't popular any more (or ever were). For anything that isn't a generic good stuff list and involves a legend with unique build around abilities, unless it is a clear archetype (like +1/+1 counters) where other legends have paved the way and you can draw from those lists, it's going to be hard for people to know what goes well in it other than those that play the deck themselves.
I hope the above makes sense. It is late, and I am more than a little tired. I probably repeated myself a couple times. Bottom line, contribute to others, and ask for them to contribute to you. If you give genuine feedback to them, hopefully they will reciprocate the best they can. If you have a more complex, or off-the-beaten-path type legend that you built your deck around, understand that it might be hard for people to give you feedback, because some of these lists really do require special knowledge for feedback to be meaningful at all. Hope this helps answer your question.
Gavin is a Senior Magic Designer at Wizards, so while it could be posturing, it isn't baseless speculation from a person on the outside. Without Masters sets, there is a need for reprints of powerful cards in eternal formats. Many of these cards are too good to ever be printed in Standard again. This leaves far fewer options than previously for these cards to be reprinted. While some of them will get thrown into supplemental sets, a la Conspiracy, there almost have to be some good reprints that come in Commander, though I am somewhat convinced that Wizards does look at the secondary market when deciding what to print in these sort of sets, even if they say they don't. After all, the fundamental need for reprints to begin with comes from inflating prices due to card popularity.
Speaking of consistent feedback, hopefully they fixed the consistently poor QC from last year. Every single rare in my Estrid deck had an off-center hologram sticker. Compared to booster rares from other recent sets, the quality was notably poor. I also heard horror stories of players having cards stuck together upon opening their decks. There needs to be a strong emphasis on resolving that.
I'm sure the design quality of the sets will be good, and hopefully not in a way that bends the rules of the format too much (looking at you, Derevi cycle + Eminence).
Release is still several months out. 6? It's a bit early for spoilers yet or even necessarily a theme. They don't want to draw too much attention from more imminent releases.
I feel like this list doesn't run a ton of rocks to begin with, and its legendary creatures are slightly limited, meaning that Mox Amber could be a dud, which I really wouldn't be crazy about.
Bribery is a good card, but it strongly depends on your meta. Without big bombs in your opponents' decks, it could be a swing and a miss over something that better advances your gameplan at 5. Cryptic is a bit too blue heavy for me in a 3-color list, and while it is one of the only counters over 3 I'd ever consider, the casting cost color intensity, and the desire to be a bit more able to use a counter in any situation, since my list doesn't have that many of them, is reason enough for me to exclude it. I do run it in my Grimgrin attrition/aristocrats list, and I like it in there.
I honestly think Jenara is one of the most adaptable commanders out there because she is cheap, has a good body, has evasion, and scales to any stage of the game via her counters ability. Plus, she makes an ideal sword carrier, which I run 3 of them, so that is often relevant. This is a mid-range list at heart, with a lot of ETB control utility. I don't see the list as written benefiting as much from Derevi as it does Jenara. She's unassuming enough, but can be a powerhouse if unchecked, and give opponents second thoughts about swinging in at all with her ability to ramp up her power. With 4 mana open on turn 4, any opponent of mine has to consider the ramifications of swinging into a 5/5, and eating removal is a benefit for us, because it isn't pointed at our bigger threats/combo pieces.
Those combos feel a lot more at home in a Abzan-esque list than in this deck. None of those cards really warrant inclusion in this decklist on their own, and the Survival Lark combo fits far more perfectly in this deck with what it wants to do in the 99, without making those cards dead on their own.
I do run some similar loops in my Atraxa list, but again, that is a deck that is far more able to play around with counters. It just doesn't fit here.
Vannifar is too good to pass on. I'll need to find a spot for her. Spots in this decklist have been tight for about 3 or 4 years now, so I really don't know what is getting cut for her.
New Teysa is definitely the card that I want to build around the most for a new deck, but Vannifar is just nuts; she'll definitely go into my Toolbox Jenara, "Search my Deck Tribal" list.
One of the only ways this deck gets over the top, other than the few creatures I run that can deliver the beatdowns, is by swording up utility creatures to get in for damage. Since this isn't a list for Craterhoof, it seems only fitting that a toolbox deck such as this would run Mirror Entity, which serves as both an Overwhelming Stampede or Phyrexian Altar depending on the board state.
Btw, Sigarda has been a pocket pick of mine forever (a relic of a time where my whole playgroup was literally running Grixis). ISB used to run Akroma, but she was my more mana friendly version. Found a good deal on a box topper for her, and jumped at it. Very excited to have a modern, extended border for one of my favorite legends.
Those are the only two 7 drops I run. I ran Uthuun in a past life, but Consecrated can just be so good. They just bring so much to the table that I can't really see myself running anything else, even though I've had other curve toppers I've wanted to use.
Resolute Archangel is, and has been, one of my favorites for this list. It can have issues with aggro sometimes, and a reliably tutorable, and not that unattainable at 7 mana reset button is a pretty nice thing to have, especially once you start blinking or reanimating it. It allows you to play around with your life total a lot more for things like Sylvan Library and a tuned mana base (fetches/shocks).
Blood Tender, of course, is the metalhead sibling of Bloom Tender.
I think that Alchemist's Refuge has a little more play in it than you guys have been giving credit for. It also works excellently with the mid-range-y toolbox creatures that this deck thrives on. For the ones that don't have flash, giving them flash can be a huge edge. I.e. if you are tutoring a creature combo piece a la Mirror Entity with your Recruiter of the Guard you may want to wait until EoT on the opponent before you's turn to not tip off your play. Likewise, this works for Reclamation Sage, Harmonic Sliver, Gilded Drake, and Cataclysmic Gearhulk, giving you additional instant-speed removal in your list. Admittedly, it is a mana dump, and is probably something I could cut without losing a ton in this list, but it does allow for some cute interactions more than just instant speed clones, which can also be disruptive.
Wargate has to be one of the best tutors ever printed in Bant colors. It's just so good. It hardly matters if it costs more mana, because it puts an permanent into play, and they have to counter the tutor, not the target. You could tutor your Survival of the Fittest into play, or a Gaea's Cradle. It ramps by hitting Mana Crypt too.
You raise an issue that is a bit more complicated than people just not providing feedback. There are several factors:
I hope the above makes sense. It is late, and I am more than a little tired. I probably repeated myself a couple times. Bottom line, contribute to others, and ask for them to contribute to you. If you give genuine feedback to them, hopefully they will reciprocate the best they can. If you have a more complex, or off-the-beaten-path type legend that you built your deck around, understand that it might be hard for people to give you feedback, because some of these lists really do require special knowledge for feedback to be meaningful at all. Hope this helps answer your question.
I'm sure the design quality of the sets will be good, and hopefully not in a way that bends the rules of the format too much (looking at you, Derevi cycle + Eminence).
Bribery is a good card, but it strongly depends on your meta. Without big bombs in your opponents' decks, it could be a swing and a miss over something that better advances your gameplan at 5. Cryptic is a bit too blue heavy for me in a 3-color list, and while it is one of the only counters over 3 I'd ever consider, the casting cost color intensity, and the desire to be a bit more able to use a counter in any situation, since my list doesn't have that many of them, is reason enough for me to exclude it. I do run it in my Grimgrin attrition/aristocrats list, and I like it in there.
I honestly think Jenara is one of the most adaptable commanders out there because she is cheap, has a good body, has evasion, and scales to any stage of the game via her counters ability. Plus, she makes an ideal sword carrier, which I run 3 of them, so that is often relevant. This is a mid-range list at heart, with a lot of ETB control utility. I don't see the list as written benefiting as much from Derevi as it does Jenara. She's unassuming enough, but can be a powerhouse if unchecked, and give opponents second thoughts about swinging in at all with her ability to ramp up her power. With 4 mana open on turn 4, any opponent of mine has to consider the ramifications of swinging into a 5/5, and eating removal is a benefit for us, because it isn't pointed at our bigger threats/combo pieces.
I do run some similar loops in my Atraxa list, but again, that is a deck that is far more able to play around with counters. It just doesn't fit here.
Btw, Sigarda has been a pocket pick of mine forever (a relic of a time where my whole playgroup was literally running Grixis). ISB used to run Akroma, but she was my more mana friendly version. Found a good deal on a box topper for her, and jumped at it. Very excited to have a modern, extended border for one of my favorite legends.
I think that Alchemist's Refuge has a little more play in it than you guys have been giving credit for. It also works excellently with the mid-range-y toolbox creatures that this deck thrives on. For the ones that don't have flash, giving them flash can be a huge edge. I.e. if you are tutoring a creature combo piece a la Mirror Entity with your Recruiter of the Guard you may want to wait until EoT on the opponent before you's turn to not tip off your play. Likewise, this works for Reclamation Sage, Harmonic Sliver, Gilded Drake, and Cataclysmic Gearhulk, giving you additional instant-speed removal in your list. Admittedly, it is a mana dump, and is probably something I could cut without losing a ton in this list, but it does allow for some cute interactions more than just instant speed clones, which can also be disruptive.