Spoken like someone who has never worked in the industry. When you are dealing with a group as diverse as gamers you'll quickly learn that you cannot please everyone and often times the community themselves will clash on ideas. In those instances you need to be able to make a decision. The best developers I've worked with have been those that make that decision based on their own personal experiences and tastes.

So ultimately it is more important to know what they like than what the players like. I know at my own company I have not hired people because they liked one game or play style over for the sole reason that I know that when put in the situation I've described above they are more likely to make a successful choice than not.

Finally, not one of them mentioned working on a "failed" game. All of the titles that they list are games that are profitable and most are still operating profitably.