@GamerSeuss said in Communication is Key for Supporters:
(...)They have made it clear they intend for us to drive the development of the game, so little or no pretesting is being done. We're it(...)
And that's a misunderstanding. People barely read any such announcement/statement and simply approach the 'game' with their expectations (from experience with similar phrased products). If their expectation isn't meet, best case, they simply leave (you can see the massive decline in player numbers on Steam charts), worst case, they leave a negative review and leave. Like it or not, DS has to generate revenue, they can blame the customer, but that won't get them sales.
As you mentioned, there is an easy (somewhat industry standard) solution to this problem, that has been suggested time and again, a closed test server prephase with selected testers that are aware of what participating in a test means, willing to and skilled enough to report problems.
If you're not applying this method and instead have an unaware, high expecting public face-tank such issues, you have to live both with the comments and consequences.