There is one place that MEA WILL (and should) get ripped apart if it sucks. That'll be Metacritic's User Rating. Say what you will about that place and the fact that some tards like to give 0s to games they've probably never played (or 10s because they probably made it...), it still has the obvious effect of game reviewer pandering when there is a noticeably large difference between the critic and user scores. With all the hate the decision to close this place is generating, not to mention the leftover anger from ME3, I could see the User Rating getting hit really hard if MEA isn't up to scratch. The myth that the user rating there is worthless is slowly dying when it becomes more and more obvious when a game's review score is so obviously bought or when they're trying to push an agenda.
To answer your question Sinful, of course it is. Like I've said previously, rather than make the game genuinely good, they would rather control dissenting opinions. No doubt 9s and 10s will fly everywhere from reviewers and hey look, MEA is an awesome game! Whereas in reality, it couldn't be further from the truth... But people will get suckered into it and because they haven't got an official place to hear complaints, they'll just point to sales figures and talk about how happy their fanbase is ie. all the brown nosers on Facebook, Twitter etc.
They may have closed the most vocal part of their fanbase down preempting what will no doubt be a s***** game, but there are still ways to hit them hard should they fail... I really hope the game turns out to be good, but the fact that everything is being kept so quiet and now shutting this place down? I wouldn't hold my breath... Either way, I see Bioware/EA making a lot of money out of this game, unless it REALLY sucks. But honestly, I'd put good money on it being mediocre...
Welcome to the business of modern AAA games...