Background removal situation Update

For the Record, I want to state that this is not an attack on KA or me trying to be hateful in anyway.  This is just me wanting to give people a genuine update on the background removal situation since it's been 3 years since they were removed with no info on their return while also giving a basic summary and analysis of the facts.  A few weeks ago I sent in a feature request for the addition of backgrounds as without them not only do I feel the homepage is boring but it also hurts my eyes and makes it harder for me to do math.  This is the conversation that ensued.  While I respect and am happy that KA has even bothered to give me a response in general (and a quick one too), I feel it's my place to let everyone know what's happened.  Since these are emails that use my real name and also the name of the KA employee who responded I have removed any personal info from the emails. 

Here is the feature request I sent in:

I know I'm just one person but I everyday I log in and I look at my gray background and remember when It used to be space themed. The backgrounds were removed quite a long time ago but I believe that adding backgrounds back would greatly benefit the community. I think that energy points have become useless and they mean nothing. Perhaps you could add new earnable backgrounds and one for completing skills. Maybe even you could add some kind of shop for energy points. I'm Just requesting because the official statement on why they were removed was because they were distracting but removing them distracted us more than when they were there. On behalf of everyone in the khan academy community, please add this.

To which I got this response:

Thank you so much for reaching out to us in regards to our background!
 
What happens is that various parts of our platform's gotten design updates in the last few years. That’s to better align with the site’s current modern visual language.
 
Besides the reason you listed for being a distraction, the removal of the other background options was also driven, in large part, by Khan Academy's code migration project. Behind the scenes, various parts of the site were being rewritten in Go and published; as a result, the team was looking for opportunities to simplify the overall experience.
 
We found that, even though some people loved the different profile backgrounds, very few learners were engaging with them. Carrying unused or out-of-date features to the new codebase would be a high-effort and complex project.
 
If you’d like more details on this change, please refer to this post in our Community Forums.
 
That said, please keep your comments coming! This is the best way to make sure our product development efforts are addressing your needs.
 
As always, we’re grateful and eager for your feedback on our platform. If there’s anything else I can do for you, don’t hesitate to let me know.

I replied:

I understand entirely. I don't know what else to say to express how I feel but I think the user "x.asper" put it best:
"Well, I believe that the community thinks that the background to their profile is akin to the wallpaper of their room. Now imagine that one day, you wake up, and the walls of your room are just a solid gray.
That's it.

It feels like our proud, colorful room that reflects us has been invaded.

I know many people on the KA community are proud to be able to personalize their background. I think a good option would to at least let us pick the color of our 'room'."
 

And got this:

Thanks for your feedback. 
 
I can totally understand your feelings and other users' feelings towards the removal of the backgrounds. I'm going to pass this on to the team so that they are aware of it.

I cut off the rest of the email as it is useless to this issue and also involves some of my personal info which, as stated before, I'm not ok sharing. This next part is my analysis of the emails.  The first response from KA seems like a genuine response at first glance with them mentioning the Issue I brought up.  The rest of the response is a word for word match with Laurie from KA's response from the post they listed (see below).

The next response is the only one that really gave me hope and as far as I can tell is a genuine attempt to make the KA community happy.  The KA rep said he would pass the issue along to the design team so they are aware of it.  I can't find anything in it that is copy pasted and while it's short it seems like something may actually get done.  as far as I know this is the most recent update on the entire background situation.  If anyone has any questions or wants to tell of a similar experience feel free to and I'll respond when I can.

I hope that this is a starting point for the readdition of backgrounds and if you have thoughts or questions on this please let me know! I'll be happy to answer any question as soon as I can. :)