I think them gathering data is good, but direct conversation can and would be an improvement for getting quality feedback.
If you see that people keep killing an NPC and then looting him, you may assume many things from that. a) That NPC is easy to hate and people dislike him. b) That NPC might have good rewards. c) Maybe the NPC went aggro. d) Something Else Entirely
However, without asking, a developer won't actually know for certain. Maybe they will be able to rule out C by looking at the data BUT how will they know if people like the NPC or not, or if people are killing them for the rewards, or doing it out of RP, or just murderhoboing. However, by asking they could get a far better picture. Maybe the NPC is being killed because people enjoy fighting them. Or something else in the game indicated that this may be an NPC to kill. Or they just plain need rewrites. Maybe they are actually popular as an NPC but people are killing them anyways.
Data needs context, and asking us is the best way to get context. This is Larian's own forum and we are willing to talk, they just need to ask.
