Question for Cakewalk: Feature Requests

First off, I already know that if I, as a user, have a feature request for Sonar (or any other supported Cakewalk product), I should submit it here:
 
http://www.cakewalk.com/support/contact/featurerequest.aspx
 
My question though, is how do those submissions get considered during development?  I spent the better part of an hour today submitting feature requests regarding Sonar X1 (I have version D, Expanded).  It occurs to me that some of those features I've been requesting since version 7, and at the same time, I know from these forums that some users with more history on the product have been requesting the SAME things for even longer.  Maybe if we had some insight on how the requests are considered we could better coordinate how we let you know what we as users want?
 
For instance, while there is a strong push here to ignore extra plugins/instruments with Sonar in favor of stability updates and efficient processing (and bug fixes), that's been a strongly developed aspect of Sonar since I've been a serious user.  I'm not blaming Cakewalk for this, since that's where the money is for attracting NEW users.  But that does raise the question of whether feature requests are considered more heavily if they fit well into the existing development/marketing strategy?
 
It's my understanding that the user base got a victory in the addition of a dedicated Pause button to the transport.  How heavily did the Feature Request Submissions play into that?  More importantly, what was that data like?  The Pause function was already accessible without a dedicated button, so this very well could have been a very small group of users constantly re-submitting the same idea?  Is the name attached to the feature request a big piece of the puzzle for Cakewalk? 
 
Will all of my dozen or so feature requests get queued to the same pile because they came from my name?  If I made similar requests in the past (either I forgot I made them or made them for past versions of Sonar), will they all be lumped together as a "single" request?
 
Is the exact text of the request considered?  So if we as a group wanted a feature and set up a "copy and paste" submission on the forums, would that let you know more definitively that this is the feature we like and here's how we would like it implemented (more or less).  Should we as users try to "campaign" for regular submissions of a feature to keep the numbers high on a particular feature?
 
I guess my question is: what exactly was the reason that the Pause button made it into the product, while other long-awaited features (e.g., automation modes, "friendlier" Friendly Names, etc.) haven't been implemented?  While I appreciate whatever conjecture the users can provide, I'm hoping somebody from Cakewalk can chime in with some insight on this one.