Hi John,
I am not sure what your thinking BC but your CRM comment is not true as well
The Primary ID in BC has ALWAYS been a customers email address and you have always been able (Well I am thinking back to at least 5 years here that I can recall even trying) to search by email address as well as make reports and filters on it as well.
In terms of your business comment - Are you aware of PAB - The Partner Advisory board and before that master partners - The biggest and longest term BC partners talking and advising BC on what they and their customers need? These have been in place for a very long time so there has always been a business involvement. What BC takes on board and implements and implements first is another matter, but there has always been that business input.
The things you point out though are not business related. They actually developer related and that is actually the thing that has been lacking, not the other way around. There has been a bit to much business focus and less core focus on the platform itself in the past. This is why things like sorting for news etc have been left unaddressed.