I agree, but the point is they are really only interrested in a sure thing. Using you as an example: the same things that make your writing good, and things like Tales of MU and Star Harbor and Void Dogs so much fun to read, the same "other appeals" NOMANANISLAND was talking about are the same things that esentially make those stories unpublishable in a mainstream sense.
My favorite example is Harry Potter, I've only read the first one and I didn't care for it, I can think of a half-dozen children titles off the top of my head that were far better and didn't sell nearly as well. But Harry Potter did fantastically well for a variety of reasons, mostly because it was bland, easy to read and inoffensive to pretty much everyone.