I do spend some time triaging this list:
https://meta.discourse.org/c/feature/2/none?order=op_likes&status=open
I wonder if a hidden issue here is that we should experiment with the voting plugin on meta on the Contribute > Feature category. Stuff tends to get buried in this category, perhaps giving better visibility to popular ideas would be helpful, then the community can help lift more good ideas up (by refining the OP, giving more votes and so on) and we can enforce some rules that “Discourse will always officially respond to a topic with more than N votes”
Looking at the size of the big well, I think it is pretty practical for us to give some sort of response on all the 10+ vote count, I think most of the 10+ already have a staff response. Then if we manage 10+ we can work down to 5+ and so on.
I also find Contribute > UX to be extra tricky cause it lives somewhere between Contribute > Feature and Contribute > Bug. I wonder if this category is helping vs hindering?
Support though is working super great, Contribute > Bug is as well imo.