Don't know how exactly it is organized in CheckPoint but I have worked for several similar size companies and most of them had 3 levels of support - help desk, tech support and dev support. Names vary of course. Any of them can assist you directly in providing support services. So CP R&D is part of TAC in a way...
My recommendation is also to listen to Amir and upgrade to solve the problem. Then when you are completing the survey ask for manager to contact you and provide the feedback you want.
I had my issues with SMB support in the past and did like that and they made an improvement. What I like about CheckPoint is that they do listen do their customer complains actually.