Interesting statement and on some levels you are correct. The difference, however, between AO and the other MMO I play, my cable company, ISP, cell phone provider, insurance company, etc etc is that if I call them with a concern they actually work to make me happy. If i threaten to cancel over product issues, especially cost vs satisfaction, they have customer retention departments that work to try to keep me. This really prevents me (and I guess most customers) from seeking out the company's facebook page or whatever social media with complaints because they're normally resolved quickly and to my satisfaction with a phone call.
AO/Funcom, not so much. They really couldn't care less if you threaten to cancel your account or even if you cancel it at all. So on the point of posting on the forums as a means of a solution, I agree that forum posts here are mainly a method of blowing off steam moreso than anything else.
It is really tough/unrealistic to compare AO with almost any other company most of us give money to. If most of us held Funcom to the same standards we hold our ISP or our cell phone provider then I doubt you'd have many long term players at all. We don't even hold them to the same standards as other MMO's that charge the same price, tbh.