Appeals are very different from trials.  For a plaintiff to prevail at trial in a civil lawsuit usually means to be awarded monetary damages, an injunction and/or declaratory relief.  For a plaintiff to win a civil appeal usually means being granted a new trial, or having a judgment for monetary damages, an injunction and/or declaratory relief affirmed.
 
The appellate process also is very different than that of a trial.  Litigation at the trial level usually focuses on the gathering and presentation of evidence, principally oral testimony, to a jury.  The goal is to persuade the jury of the truth of a particular account of the facts.
 
Appeals, in contrast, turn on the written briefs and the oral argument of counsel.  Instead of marshalling evidence to show “what happened,” the goal is to persuade judges (typically three) to adopt a particular view of what the law is – or what it must become.

Thus, an appeal does not provide a forum for a party “to be heard,” in any conventional sense.  What appeals do provide is an opportunity to assure that the law was or will be fairly applied in one’s case.  Occasionally, in so doing, they result in the making of new law, which may advance the interests of justice for others as well as for the parties litigating the appeal.