Is the Insider Programme still valuable?

I have been an Insider since original Technical Programme, and then we really only had Fast and Slow Rings.

I felt those days were exciting as we got to test things and could make comments on new ideas.

However, things have changed and I feel we are more being used as unpaid testers of features MS have ALREADY decided to issue i.e. we are not really influencing them thesw days.

What makes this worse is the bs policy of A/B testing.

I think MS are paying lip service to the Insider Programme and do not actually use it as a policy deciding tool any more.

I only test a feature I am interested in nowadays but given most changes are superficial and largely dumbed, I can go several builds before something catches my interest.

In short, the Insider Programme has become boring.

So what do you guys think about its direction these days?

I think it's valueable for software testing.

Developers might want to test their software for upcoming release ex. by making use of new features or by testing it to make sure new features don't break something existing.

I don't see what other benefits one can have beyond seeing what's new and generating feedback in same time.
A\B testing is all about statistics, one may like and use X but if majority likes or uses Y then it's more likely X will be dropped.

We can only guess how MS uses generated feedback, I assume there is a hard line for some areas which aren't influenced by feedback but are instead influenced by their innovation goals.

Ex, priorities:
- MS decided to introduce feature X
- feature X will be implemented because that's in agenda
- User feedback is used to decide how that feature X will work or look like
- BUT user feedback will not influence whether feature X will be implemented

Also consider IT departments for companies where they have to make sure the OS works in their situation, especially where proprietary software is in use, lots of money involved.

Berton said:

Also consider IT departments for companies where they have to make sure the OS works in their situation, especially where proprietary software is in use, lots of money involved.

Sure - but my question was really geared towards domestic users.

I fully understand why a company may want to test their programs to ensure they work ok, but I doubt they would give a jot about latest emojis, dark mode changes, file explorer with tabs, new search methods blah blah blah etc.

So perhaps I should have asked more accurately "is the Insider Programme still valuable for domestic users?"