Except we're not talking about people being critical of their writing style, their character development, or pointing out plotholes and plot contrivances, but about allowing a vocal few to dictate the direction and events of the story.
If certain people don't like a certain character and would want to see them get killed off or otherwise removed from the story, DPC should not ever listen to those people if he doesn't plan on doing that because it is not up to them to tell him what he should and shouldn't do with his characters. The same thing if people start asking for some kind of sexual kink like BDSM or incest; if DPC doesn't plan on doing it, then he shouldn't do it just because some people might want it.
In an ideal world, the author should listen to as much (constructive) criticism as he (or she, of course) can get, but he should only act on that criticism when it demonstrates that he has failed to convey his intended message to large portions of the audience.
For example, I think
your criticism of forking the Maya/Josy sex scenes in Episode 5 is perfectly valid, but whether DPC should act on it comes down to what he intended when he wrote the two scenes that way. If he wanted to emphasize how hard it will be to balance a three-way relationship by proving you can't always be there for both of them, then he should probably disregard your concerns, at least for now.
If, on the other hand, he wanted to make sure each player got a lewd scene with their favorite girl but was worried about M/J burnout so he made sure people didn't have to sit through both of them, then I think he should take your criticism to heart. Clearly, in trying to avoid one problem, he inadvertently created another one that might be just as bad. He should devise a new strategy to avoid burnout the next time this sort of thing comes up.
It goes without saying that this is easier said than done, but I think it's ultimately the only meaningful answer. Authors who insist on riding roughshod over their audience's wishes will eventually find themselves alone. But at the same time, trying to please EVERYONE will devolve into artwork by committee. Authors need feedback to learn how their art is interpreted, but at the end of the day that art has to originate in their own vision. They can certainly get valuable input from friends or colleagues, but they can't just farm the whole project out to the public.
