I would not be surprised at all if the composition of the longer term players and recent purchasers has shifted substantially since launch.

As an example, although it's purely anecdotal, in guild chatter I'm hearing a transition towards a more Elderscrolls oriented player base vs. a strongly progression oriented MMO player base as in the things in the patch that the players in my guilds seem more focused on are the Elderscroll oriented changes as opposed to the MMO oriented changes.

As such, it may be strongly in ZoS's interest to try and gauge the interests both of the most recent players to join, and the interests of the players that have stayed around for the longest time.

In particular, it would be unfortunate if ZoS was unaware of the particular interests that their longer term subscribers have. It's going to be quite difficult to radically alter the character of the primarily solo character experience most players will go through as they pass through the first one or two months of game play. And that experience is a powerful filter with regards to the players that will remain as mid and long term subscribers.