I really did try to call out the benefits that happened when I was told to "give permissions another look". Like all software, needs change and I was able to make a great improvement.
The issue I have is that it's not clear if I'm even addressing the correct issue(s). If I don't make the Correct change, all other changes are irrelevant since they'll never get published.
Yeah, it's crap that they didn't give you guidance, although it seems like you managed to find plenty of issues quickly so perhaps the guidance is less necessary than it might seem.
Ultimately you know your extension, codebase, and use-case, far better than Google does, so it may not really be possible for them to give you the detail that you're looking for – you may be the only person who can do that.
I hope that they provide the support you need in understanding the problem to the point where the extension can continue to live on the Chrome store.
The issue I have is that it's not clear if I'm even addressing the correct issue(s). If I don't make the Correct change, all other changes are irrelevant since they'll never get published.