There seems to be this misconception that because a piece of software is developed as free software, that it must bend to the whims of everyone but the developer. If a developer or group of developers doesn't implement exactly what users want, users attack them and accuse them of being anti free software.

I completely disagree with that idea. Part of free software is the freedom to change the code, not the freedom to force people to change the code. To tell developers what they should do with their time and how they should develop is to restrict their freedoms to do as they wish with the code. That is against the spirit of free software.