I had a few multi-hour sits there last week too, (I set up camp near the EFB guys to pick up tips and tricks). I didn't didn't hear any "trial balloons", but I do recall a table full of pilots with one rep asking how much they want of their compensation to be "at-risk".

It's additional input, maybe one or more of those the pilots said they didn't do the survey, so when PS topic was brought up the rep asked him directly! ..but it is possible that it was a trial balloon when you heard it in passing.

Can't know the real story unless you were there for the whole conversation or had your own conversation with said reps. Anecdotal bits don't cut it.