In the end, Apple had a good showing at PMA and I came away with a lot more answers than I thought I would - in great part due to Apple unexpectedly bringing a beta of 1.1, and thus having a lot of features publicly on display they would probably not have been able to talk about otherwise.

 

In general I think PMA showed that Apple is indeed listening to its userbase, even if they may not provide much public feedback to indicate that is the case.  From a comments made and conversations overheard I know that Apple people do pay attention to feedback and forums, so if enough users care about something Aperture developers will address it - perhaps not in a way expected, but usually in a carefully thought through way that satisfies user needs (as with the DPI and RAW decoder version solutions).

 

If the presence of many requested new features was not quite enough to convince you that Apple listens,  consider that at the end of every presentation Apple emphasized that the most important menu item in Aperture was the “Provide Feedback” option.  They know Aperture will not reach the level of success desired unless they work with users to grow Aperture in directions that help us all out.

 

So thanks Apple for allowing us all an early peek at 1.1, and we all look forward to the final release this March.