I'm personally excited as for what a Contributor-run chat may bring to the community.
The xat staff has always stated that they'd like for us to become representative of the community, and now we've just got a chance to interact with them on a daily basis. This will also be a good opportunity for future applicants to get in touch with us, so we know more about the people interesteed in becoming a Contributor. I'll personally do my part and attend the chat to the best of my activity, and I suppose that the members of the community that would like to be heard should do so too.
I agree that the forum is great and everything, but we've also got support sections in the forum, yet support chats haven't been discontinued. This doesn't seem to be very different to me. The same way as you'd get a faster response for your question at Help chat, you'd get a faster response for your suggestion at Feedback. For example, a user has recently posted a suggestion that contains copyrighted content, then he came to me and I explained why it wasn't likely to become a power. He wouldn't have wasted time typing such a long topic that he'd end up hiding later if he had spoken to me first.
For those who have been criticizing us for the past several months, take this as a chance to join us and help us improve.