Users should be asked if they actually wanted the features in the existing package after all? Why shouldn't users have been asked before changing the existing package?
I'm one of those users. If I'm loud, does that mean my opinion doesn't count anymore?
It never counted. You can suggest or advise, but you never had the power to tell Debian what to do. Being loud will not change that, no. You'll have to resort to persuasion.
It is marked as 'Priority: standard' thus installed as part of the standard Debian installation and shows only NEWS entries by default without needing further configuration.
You definitely see it for several packages during dist-upgrades. Same in sid/testing except it can be any time though it's a rare event.
In case apt/dpkg is configured to ignore those, information still resides in /usr/share/doc/<pkg>
it'll also be put in the release notes when the next major Debian version is released.
I mean, distributions have already figured these things out 20 years ago, but I guess
users nowadays expect these to be announced in Twitter or a pinned Github issue or something :-<
I'm one of those users. If I'm loud, does that mean my opinion doesn't count anymore?