Your wife was an editor for hire. I don't think people self publishing are looking for someone to have power over whether they can publish or not - they're looking for someone to edit the book and give them an opinion, but not be bound by those opinions. Otherwise they could just go through a publishing house.
Yes, that’s a fair restatement of what I said. I’d only add that some self-published writers can’t traditionally publish. So it’s not exactly their choice that they can only contract with an editor in a way that doesn’t best serve the book.
Not that it contradicts your point, but publishers don't have slush piles anymore. Agents have slush piles, and if you somehow get through that to be represented by an agent, then you go through the submission process at publishing houses.
As someone who's in the middle of it right now, I keep being surprised by how much more work there is to do, even on a "polished" manuscript. It's a long process and I'm not surprised most people don't have the stamina to get through it.
Many people could, if the publisher had any interest in their genre, or it was fashionable, or it was about the right genre story, or whatever. But publishers have limited time to shepherd a book through the publishing process so choose their horses.
Personally I think the democratization of publishing away from formal publishers is one the best things to happen to publishers. The gatekeepers kind of suck.
