@Hitch
Not disputing your arguments but having a hard time getting a handle on them.
Speaking for myself, I am pretty tolerant of stylistic formatting if I like the book, and can't see why I would care if I don't like it. It is like reading Shakespeare in old English. Once upon a time I did it and actually thought it was swell, but I doubt I would do it now by choice.
Still I don't want to be told I am an idiot because I don't understand or agree with what the author has to say or with their methods of expression. I actually have no compulsion to criticise a book. If I don't like it I stop reading, literary or not. Can't constructively criticise it without reading the whole book, and my martyr impulses do not go in that direction. I could understand it in non-fiction but reading an entire fiction book I am not enjoying seems pretty pointless.
And while I wouldn't buy a horse who could do algebra it might be fun to read a book about one. Shows to what a low level my literary standards have sunken to
Helen