You mean "become" hopeful. To remain hopeful you have to already be hopeful and your small selection of posts don't exactly radiate hope...haha
Faatal is one of the senior programmers. The designers who have final say are Joel and Rick Huenink. Most decisions are highly collaborative and team decided but there are times when a final say has to be given and when Joel gives it, it is final unless his brother knuckle rubs him into submission. As for focus groups, we are the focus group. They make adjustments based on our feedback and have done so many times in the past. The imminent update is the culmination of many many years of community feedback.
Now that the merger has happened, ultimate say will be the Behavior Execs. Whether they will micromanage or let TFP be TFP remains to be seen. So far, there hasn't been a peep of anything from behavior in terms of direction. To Grandpa Minion's utter dismay, nobody has come to overrule the Hueninks on how much emphasis should be spent on PvP, for example.