And if I'd prefer DX7 bump-mapping to DX9 shaders? I'd rather petition Mark for those directly than rely on the community's sense of direction, ta.
Then make a feature request, and do just that. I certainly wouldn't post in that thread telling you you were being rude for asking for it, or that you should wait or that you didn't need it or whatever else. ( Not specifically directed at what you said here, just a general attitude towards feature requests around here whereby anyone who doesn't personally need something tells everyone else what they need. ) I don't rate your chances of getting that request filled any higher than I do this request ( IE: real low ) but I wouldn't tell you not to ask.
Releasing the source is not a normal request in this sense and would involve you getting something you HADN'T paid for; something which, until recently, it would have been completely out of the question to even mention.
Must be a perspective thing. I never really felt that I was getting something I'd already paid for with new features. I could equally argue that it's less than a "normal" feature request insomuch as there is no debugging and testing required, just whatever tidying and organisation was required ( which could be a little or a lot of work for all I know ) but we'd probably both be splitting hairs.