User-Submitted Feedback: When Does It Matter?

Tonight, I submitted my first ever piece of feedback to Google re: a feature-suggestion for Google+. While constructing my feedback, my mind was thrown into a brief war with itself. The source of the conflict? Whether or not the time I was spending piecing together my feedback was worth it or not.

Because I know the "Send feedback" button is there for a reason, I ignored the conflict I was going through and submitted my opinion on principal anyway. Regardless of this fact, I'm _still_ questioning whether or not what I just submitted was worth the time I spent putting it together.

So, I've come to the ever-intelligent members of HN to ask the question, "When does user-submitted feedback matter?" I would like to think that user-submitted feedback is handled democratically, wherein the majority rules and once a specific number of people have weighed in on a specific thing, action is taken.

But, honestly, I can only see user-submitted feedback being handled democratically if the feedback is inherently negative, i.e a bug that completely decimates the user-experience in it's entirety, rather than feedback that is inherently positive, i.e a feature request.

That said, although I ended up submitting my feedback to Google for a feature I think would add positively to the user-experience of Google+, taken what I've said above, I'm almost positive it's a textbook example of grasping at straws.

So, what do you guys and gals think? Does user-submitted feedback matter? If so, when? If not, why not?