Kevin, your previous poll was worded in a way that has lead you to a bad comclusion, in my opinion.
You asked about "The most important elements in a mass combat game," emphasis mine. Just because people don't consider pre-painted figures among the most important elements doesn't mean they don't want them.
I suspect that if you had worded the survey "Which elements would you like to see in a mass combat game," you'd see a much higher response for pre-painted figs (which is up to 6 now, btw).
Edited to add additional clarification:
The question of "most important" leads most respondents down this chain of thought (imo):
1. Which features would be cool?
2. Which features would I not buy the game without?
3. Which features would lead me to select one game over another?
4. Pre-painted figs aren't nearly as important as clear rules, etc., so I'll vote for the things that are make-or-break for me.
As a result if one game had unclear rules and didn't allow for easy movement between mass combat and roleplay but had really nice pre-painted figures, while another had the opposite, sales of the latter would be huge (though people would probably still buy the figures from the first game).