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I'm certainly not arguing against editing, but you still have that no-accounting-for-taste problem. A few cases in point: I recently finished and enjoyed the novel Swamplandia!, then checked the consumer reviews on LibraryThing. Readers were all over the place, some of them rating it as barely readable and others blowing their trumpets over it. Similarly, Janet Evanovich. Hugely popular, but 15 pages made me want to toss her book into the yard.
I'm not sure a single appraisal really does the job. Clearly ten would be too expensive. In the end I wonder if you have to look inside yourself and ask honestly, Is this the book I want to publish? Then do it and accept the praise along with the jeering. The good news is that it's not open-heart surgery on toddlers. A questionable chapter probably won't kill anybody.
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