There's a Reddit thread discussing it today but I thought you (and the rest of R&D if you feel like asking) would be a good resource: does the term "ramp" come from the card Rampant Growth or was it a preexisting term for the game action of building up your mana?

My gut is the lingo comes from the card.

"removing draft wouldn’t allow us to reprint more cards you want. It just gives less purpose to the other cards."
This makes no sense to me. Why can't the set be like: every fetch, every signet, 10x 8 cmc commanders, all relevant rampant growth effects etc etc.
Like why do we need a reprint if colossol dreadmaw when we could get prime time? Why not have an undraftable mess of cards that are just good reprints?

Highly desired reprints are a resource that we have to allocate across our various products. Any one set only gets so many.

Can white get ramp with the caveat that it has to be behind or equal in lands like rampant growth but not if its ahead in mana?

White can get ramp in a number of ways, but always for a plains.

Verge Rangers is a worse Courser of Kruphix, Cartographer’s Hawk is a worse rampant growth. Is White's new color identity to be worse than anything green does?

White is primary in some effects and secondary in others. Yes, it does its secondary effects worse than the primary color. That’s why it’s secondary. : )

Is Rampant Growth considered overpowered? Selfie Preservation is the latest in a line of cards that are strictly worse.

R&D has pulled back a bit from Rampant Growth.While we might one day push in that area, currently Rampant Growth is over the line.

Does the fact that lands don't have costs prevent them from having alternate costs (like a miracle cost for example)? I ask because I am wondering how land-based alternatives to rampant growth would work?

Changing with how lands are played is messing with dynamite metaphorically. It has not historically gone well.

Is a two mana land ramp spell (rampant growth) too good for standard?

Not a developer but maybe.

That list you gave about what blue can and cant do to permanents highlights a lot of the frustration people have with blue, I think. Sure it cant get rid of permanents, but there are 8 other different things it can do about them that are just as effective. Red on the other hand, has enchantments as a weakness and it cant do a single thing about them. In my opinion, blues weakness is insignificant. it can get rid of things in other ways(bounce/counter, polymorph, freeze etc) all just as effective

Blue cannot do direct damage. Blue cannot heal. Blue cannot giant growth. Blue cannot rampant growth. Blue cannot reanimate. Blue cannot gain life. Blue cannot grant or have haste, first strike, vigilance, lifelink, reach or deathtouch. There are all sorts of things blue cannot do.

If you were to ever print a color shifted llanowar elves what color would it hypothetically be? And would you ever consider actually doing that? Or would that break color pie too much

If I had to put it in a second color, I guess I’d choose black. Same reason I chose black second for the Rampant Growth question a few weeks back.

As a green mage, I've always wondered: why is there so little instant speed ramp? Harrow and evolution charm are the only real recent examples. What is the problem with an instant speed rampant growth, or something similar?

Certain effects, like mana ramping and discard, default to sorceries because we feel they play better as sorceries.