Look I'm not a "big conspiracy guy", but how does knowing the number of user data requests create any additional transparency?

For all we know, there's only been one request, but maybe that request is something like: "Give us a plaintext copy of each email sent and received for all of your users for the last 10 years"

The only thing that will create transparency is to eliminate secret orders all together. That's what these guys should be arguing and I find it strange that they are not. Instead they are all fixated on just being able to show how many requests they've complied with and not what those requests were actually for.