Some people live user centered interface design and welcome feedback from users, but so far I have found most people form strong opinions, say they want open feedback from users and then explain to the user why they are wrong or show other methods to refute the end user's input, if they ever even ask in the first place. There is never anything wrong with just saying "thank you" to an end user - to never turn down that opportunity is a goal of mine, served with a fresh cup of "shut up".
One personal exception to this tendency to show who is right or wrong, which still drives me to think it is possible to be open minded and really driven to build great things for people by listening to what they say, is the founder and principal of BlinkIA here in downtown Seattle, Kelly Franznick -- http://www.blinkinteractive.com/aboutus/ .
My goal as a design engineer is to live up to Kelly's demonstrated ability for open listening without forming strong opinions, while communicating in a straightforward business manner - this he does about conclusions he reaches on UI / UX test results, all with a sense of humor. It's not all about rules either.
For one thing it is difficult to be successful in this or any field if you don't have a contract or money coming in the door. One's user (stakeholder always sounds like a vampire slayer to me, ha!) can also be construed to be whoever pays you, in addition to all the other users/stakeholders.
When you can successfully state a point of view based on watching and listening to user feedback coupled with business needs, all without scaring off the person holding the capital, then that is success, even if they don't agree with implementing a recommended design change. They too may have their reasons, not the rarest being a lack of comprehension (not enough experience to understand) or a lack of a shared language to communicate with.
If one's conclusions are correct, for example as I believe I may have been about Google's ecommerce application, (part of which is now called "Google Checkout", which I believe eventually will be integrated as a silent backend through their API), the businesspersons who one did not convince the first time through will be more likely to listen the second or third time.
One can only hope this is so, for the benefit of saving many end users time and frustration so they may take the happy train of sunshine and continue pursuing good things for themselves and others, and surf away from their experience with your information application as happy campers.
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