These forums are for user-to-user support, mainly.
This specific forum itself is, like the name says, for Requests and Feedback.
What more is there to understand?
if you make a request here, do people read them and then go to the tracker and raise an enhancement
No. Not automatically. Or even often.
99% of "requests" are useless, because they don't consider the larger picture or the fact that other people use the software as well.
And yes, if it was up to me, this sub-forum would not exist. I rarely see anything in here of value.
But that's just my own opinion, which is worth very little when it comes to the operation of these forums. :)