They don't look for equipment suggestions.

The last "new" weapons that came out were the shard bombs- which went directly against the wishes of the players.

Before that, we saw the dark retribution and the rocket hammer- which were to my knowledge not player suggested directly.

...before that, there were suggestions for more/better handguns, but I don't believe that supernova/biohazard were directly suggested or detailed out in any way either.

It is notable that sudaruska was buffed by quite a bit as a result of our whining, and that bab/itd were given stun status+a decent radius, but that is different.

And then in terms of other things, the last buff was chaos, and that was done recklessly and after it was buffed a year before. No other suggestions for gear or any other kind of equipment have, again to my knowledge, been actually carried out by the developers.

.......................................Except pets, which are obviously in development.

Which means that the developers may be looking for:
-Widely loved ideas within the game (That have been voted up on by players)
-Well fleshed out versions of these ideas that people agree with (I.E. "I think pets would be cool because pokemon." is not a valid idea, but is a start)
-Ideas that are likely to make them money. (as seen by the fact that pets will have accessories etc. and can be "rare" and all of that nonsense)

Rather than-
-A niche that hasn't yet been filled. (Haze bombs already support the player... as do many other weapons. Pets/battle sprites add nothing to the game.)
-Ideas that could be seen as balanced. (Pets have been seen as overpowering the knight.)