Welcome back, Revy. It’s been a while. 
I hope you’re well.
I just want to chip in a little, but I won’t go in to it too much.
I don’t know of any developer who doesn’t have a crew of players they work with at a closer level than the wider community. It’s pretty normal to have focus groups during the production of any product - be it a game or a new flavour of soup (or anything in between).
I’m not saying we got the comms balance during the WoM Beta right, far form it, but as many noted, it was the most communicative beta we have had to date, and we will continue to work to improve further on the communication pathways in future tests.