I would say precisely the same thing about the data that SI has collected and analyzed. Since SI is only analyzing data collected under very specific and somewhat limited game conditions, and since users can refuse to share data with SI and other platforms, the numbers are not properly representative of the entire user base and how people use the game under the full breadth of use cases and conditions. It's a start, and it's convenient, but the previous post above shows that we already have clear indicators to suggest that SI's data is inaccurate.
The better option is always to conduct large-scale, professional, digital survey research with your customer base, and that's what SI should be doing. As someone who has spent part of his career in market research and as a market analysis, I can assure you that conducting more rigorous, professional online survey research produces far more reliable and credible data.
However, if SI can't complete the features or get them working on time, the data doesn't matter anyway. Just be transparent with your customers and make it clear whether you plan to eventually restore the feature, permanently remove it, or start charging people to access it in the future. I suspect that the real issue here is that the development team fell behind and can't complete the international management feature on time or correctly. So, the 5% data point is a convenient way to excuse and downplay the feature's removal for the time being. Hopefully we'll see it restored within a few months of FM25's release. I certainly hope we're not going to see a permanent removal, and I hope we won't be required to pay a separate fee to add the feature once it's available.