yep looks like it hit a nerve, but lets face it, data is a fact of business these days.

I agree, more 'brain' would be better, but like you have pointed out, algorithms can often scale better. And yes, the metrics must be chosen carefully, and would probably differ between app depending on the business needs. I was previously working on a 'contribution score' metric and as mentioned a few times UA is on the way in some form. 1 UP as mentioned in the comments is also using data to help. I think some people and apps are going to use data to help them grow, and probably more than are willing to let on right now :-)