The nature of these questions are quite alarming. Answers to most of the questions should have been obvious and yet the devs gave nothing to fill them. Plus, some of the questions should have been so obvious even that they should have not been asked to begin with. Now, after many months if not over a year, some of these questions were taken in again and still left without answers. Now I have even worse feeling about the issues in place.
Some obvious answers should have been outright yes's (does the Kraken have a body too) while some should have been clear no's (no to NPC-driven market, yes to player-driven market) and then given some further thoughts with couple lines. The game has major flaws in place that reveal too much from the presented content already, it offers a very low surprise value if we exclude players themselves and their cunning, and they think anything they may say could possibly reveal "too much"? They haven't even been able to build anchors for the ships for crying out loud!... sigh... Begs to ask the question, but where's your focus team? What went so wrong with the so gorgeous ocean that wasn't worth the effort to make sealoving anchors for? What did you do?!
I'm tired of this type of demeanor toward customers. We are not as fragile as some of you devs treat us. Just stop the sugar-coating nonsense. Build a spine. I'm so disappointed at you (some of the devs) right now. You should know better. You are to direct the whole industry to a better future and you still treat clients this way. You don't have to use those accessory sentences with us. Be blunt.
If you don't want to tell us about some pieces of content because you are too afraid to ruin the surprise for us, don't be. The tier based reward system basically did the worst punch below the waistline already. You cannot ruin it much further than what is to be expected from the answers given here and the gameplay this far in case the reputation system stays the exact same. If you don't want to discuss about a feature, get a grip over yourselves and just tell that to us, with a straight face. We understand. We are not that idiot. You have your limits, the engine has limits, everything has their limits. There's no shame in them nor admitting them. Be brave. Stay hungry.