[PommeDeTerre]

Is Ubuntu going in a direction that aligns with the tastes/needs of anybody?

After the dumbing down of the past few releases, it isn't really any easier for non-technical people to install and use.

The dumbing down has also driven away a lot of the more technically-inclined users. Unity makes it damn near impossible to get any sort of real work done.

The majority of kids and teens, along with the elderly, could not care any less about it.

It's a lot like Firefox. Yeah, it's still around, but without any real focus. At some point, the stragglers who are still using it will move on to something else, and there's nobody new coming to replace them.