RE: Floundering in Feedback (Part 1 of 3)
I can imagine it might be been a writer and dealing with feedback, so many people and personalities so many thoughts and ideas. Actually we are all different and even some of the people who giving you feedback may find one of other things needs to be improve but the ordinary reader may not think so. I just recalled one documentary about famous german Violinist David Garrett, in the program they were talking about the exams and selection of musician to higher levels and how the examiner assess them. David is young talented artists and already was giving big concerts and he just a test came to that exam, has play his music and got a lot of comment to his technical skills that he needs to change this and that and still is even not good enough. But at the end he unveil the truth and the examiners felt a bit embarrassed. I believe feedbacks in general very relative and probably personal. You can’t make everyone happy :)
When your goal is to send something for mainstream publication, you don't just need to please readers. You need to be able to get your work past the gatekeepers also who decide what goes into their publications. But when it comes down to it, all good editing is based on what impact things will have or could have on the reader.
It is never possible to please everyone and always up to the author in a peer review workshop to choose what feedback they use and what they don't, but it is useful to be sure your are having the impact you intend on the reader and to be sure that if you break "rules" the effect is worth the risk.
But just because someone has had something published or, as in your example, is a musician performing professionally, it doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement and to do better. As writers our goals should be to continue to improve, not just to reach milestones like professional publication.
Additionally once you have a name and professional credit, people become more forgiving of things that are less than ideal in your work. You can "get away" with more things that in a newcomer is perceived as sloppiness or haphazard rule breaking because your name compensates for a lot.