They ask the question, but any response is prohibited unless they cycle it through a pr department. It's about public narrative, and how it changes sentiment. So unless that response pays them, it's better to avoid saying anything than saying the wrong thing and pissing someone off, especially the wrong influencer.

(Former Azure DevOps PM here) That's not quite true - did you hear that from someone? When I was there, I had pretty much full freedom to talk with customers, as long as they hadn't opted out of contact. Never had to talk to PR or have emails looked at.

Sorry that you didn't hear back though :(

What does "opted out of contact" mean? I wonder if I am missing some communications because I unchecked some "don't send me spam" checkbox now!

I think there are likely a few places - i.e. the unsubscribe link (@Larrik), a button in the sign-up flow, and probably also somewhere in settings.

You should reach out to some PM's on Twitter! I know many are fairly active, and I'm sure would love suggestions or feedback.

That usually means the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of your email. Clicking that is usually quite permanent.