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If as you say, *someone* needs to hold the reins, then those someones will come into being. They will make money, perhaps by selling ads on their review websites, and because they have such keen insight, people will flock to them for the benefit of their wisdom.
But those reviewers won't determine what gets published and for how long.
Speaking of "how long," this brings me to another point about epublishing.
My novel was available as a mass market paperback for six months, it didn't meet sales expectations, and it went out of print for the next six years. I got the rights back and self-published as an ebook.
The first six months' sales were small. But they doubled in the next six months. And doubled again in the next six months. And now, approaching the end of the 2nd year, I'm selling a few hundred copies a month. Okay, Stephen King isn't weeping in envy over my sales, but they're enough to have me working on another book that will go straight to epublishing.
Where but in epublishing could a book stay in print for two years while it built a market? And where else could an author get a steady (if modest) monthly income from his work, as opposed to either winning the lottery or not as happens in print publishing?
Epublishing has resurrected the midlist author, who has been a dying breed in print publishing for the past two decades.
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