The ARC put a lot of time and effort into the feedback that was given by the players that participated in the play tests. Changes to the 0.11 packet were made directly from player feed back, so yes the player base was consulted. If your chapter didn't participate in the play testing that is some thing you should bring up with your chapter's owner and staff.
Honestly I think the new rules are a huge improvement, and make it easier for new players to join the game with less bulk and confusion for them to wrap their heads around. Yeah, there's still things that could be tweaked, but the over all whole, I feel, is significantly better than where were when I started playing several years ago.