It’s probably because the stock agencies are very picky about dust spots and cigarette butts spoiling a shot! I’ve always had to edit every image painstakingly. I even do it for Steemit, but not because it’s for Steemit. My workflow includes actions that save the edited photo for stock. I just then add the copyright symbol and have an action that downsizes it and saves it in a different folder for Steemit. So anything that is not already submitted to stock is edited and ready to go - whether as editorial shots or creative.

I think we all have our favorite workflows for whatever works for us.