HuClose, but not quite.
Marketing has always HAD a voice. It's pretty much the definition of marketing - to make itself heard and noticed.
What seems to be happening more and more nowadays, is that engineering has become marketing's slave, tasked to provide marketing with something to talk ABOUT, whether it is merited or not.

I can, on occasion, notice flexy frames and sometimes wheels. But I've NEVER gotten off a bike thinking "man, that would have been a sweeter ride if only the cranks/BB had been a bit stiffer".