As one of the people who'd like to see more people vote on things that will affect the game as a whole... I have to agree it didn't entirely feel like a vote. The exception was 'psychic/liminal skills as taught second skills: yes or no?' but even then there was a lot of discussion.

Overall it felt much more like trying to lay out the groundwork for eventual voting options than it did holding an actual vote. There's merit to both formats, but some of the lack of clarity on, say, veteran apps might've come from it coming across as more 'what are your thoughts on doing the thing?' than 'are we doing the thing?'

I will also say a lot more people voted in the one SotG I've been around for that included jaunt voting, so there's at least clear investment in picking the next setting. And I appreciate that you take the time to ask the players about issues like cast caps/veteran apps/skills! It'd be easy to make a unilateral decision, but it gives us all a chance to say 'that sounds cool, do it' or 'I'd really rather you didn't.'

Some things need discussion before they're voted on, but others can just be 'here's the thing, should we do it?'