This forum category is littered with complaints; this forum category is littered with unanswered topics or questions that are not satisfactorily answered.
Over the past few years, instead of making the JED more reliable for its users, more trustworthy as a source of software distribution, the system is broken.
We have evidence that "tickets" are closed without explanation; evidence of submissions for listing that wait weeks or months without any explanation; evidence of products that should not be listed on the JED remaining listed even after they've being reported several times and from different sources.
There are 20+ people who are associated with the JED team and it's evident that the team's spokesperson—who's (perhaps unfairly) taken the brunt of the criticisms we have levelled against the team—seems powerless to act.
Product reviews are being trashed: it doesn't matter if the reviews are good or bad; any review (good or bad) indicates that some people try to provide feedback to developers. The excuse that's been given—about why the reviews are not published—is that the "automated spam protection system" is filtering out reviews; the "system" cannot differentiate between genuine reviews and "fake" ones.
There are glaring differences between the latest versions shown on JED listings and what's notified via the Joomla update system or on the developers' websites. I conducted a brief survey of a number of the more popular extensions listed on the JED. (Note: I do not use most of these extensions myself. They're listed because I am aware that people (a) often recommend them in the forum and (b) a lot of other people use them themselves):
- Akeeba Backup: JED (latest version shown) 5.3.3; owner's website (latest version shown) 5.4.0
- Akeeba Admin Tools: JED 4.1.3; owner's website 4.2.0
- JEvents: JED 3.4.28; Owner's website 3.4.39
- JCE Editor: JED 2.6.16; owner's website: 2.6.16
- Kunena: JED 5.0.7; owner's website 5.0.10
- Weblinks: JED 3.4; owner's website 3.6.0

I'm surprised there's a large difference between the versions shown on the JED and the latest versions available either via the automatic Joomla update procedure or what's available from the owner's website. I'm surprised because these extensions are all from well-respected software developers and, I would have expected, they spend a lot of time preparing the new versions. Part of that preparation, I would have expected, would also involve updating their listings on the JED. Why are the JED listings not being updated? Are we to believe that reputable extension developers have turned their backs on the JED or is it a matter of the system being so hopelessly broken that reputable extension developers cannot use the JED?
I appreciate the work that the one person on the JED team, who almost always shoulders the responsibility for answering on behalf of his team, tries to do. I'm not singling him out for criticism.
The whole JED team is responsible for the mess we're in. The whole team must answer for the disaster ... not just one person (who I am sure means well but seems powerless to influence). If I've written anything incorrect then I'm happy to be corrected. I'm not trying to inflame an already bad situation; I'm simply summarising the situation as I see it.