A well funded, well staffed project looks very different than an under staffed, under funded one. They have to make harder decisions about what work to prioritize. I think what Mike is saying just emphasizes why they made this choice. What little work is able to be put into homebrew needs to be as targeted and helpful as possible. Analytics help then do that.

So to answer your question, the status of the project and his personal affairs have a huge impact on design decisions.

> They have to make harder decisions about what work to prioritize

Priority isn't a design decision.

Analytics help, but the choice to not opt-in is not excused by "but we need them"