Kiwi:
IB runs a business. They made a business decision to provide snapshots of data and limited backfill. The snapshot approach gets us the latest price and does not suffer the way true streaming data does when dealing with high volume, high velocity trading. Backfill hasn't been available very long and they are still working on it.
I feel sure their customer base is growing rapidly. Losing a few of us to another broker will not affect them that much. We are essentially getting the data for free. I'm certain that if another broker comes along with the same data cost and commission structure, but with data that satisfies your desires, you will move your trading to that other firm. In the interim, you will stay with IB. If there are enough customers with requirements like yours and such a broker has a decent reputation, IB will see a diminution of their customer base. They may then make a business decision to expend the resources necessary to staunch the customer loss and regain those who have left. Then again, they make not. Perhaps the new poll approach is the result of a business decision to lessen the chance of such a loss of customers.
I notice that your poll request for the data is the top vote getter, a fact which I'm certain has nothing to do with the link you put to it here in ET. It is not the top-rated suggestion. Why don't you wait a while and see what ET does with the poll idea - it has only been running for about a week. I see they've already adopted one of your suggestions.