I uploaded some main collection (not editorial, not V/A candidates) on Saturday and haven't 'caught' them even locked for inspection yet. Is this the new 'normal' (exclusive), or just the backlog from the Milan'lypse?

I still have a few from Nov 3rd
Up to a week is still OK from my experience.

inspections definitely seem stretched out lately...even for exclusive

Seems that editorials are coming through faster than main collection files.

Hmmm. I've got 5 editorials from the 6th accepted, and 3 mains from the 5th still not locked.
And two editorials frm the 6th rejected for date format, despite me checking with Sirimo that date-month-year is still acceptable per his sticky - it is! - and putting a NOTE to inspector in the description in all of my editorial files. (The inspectors who know what they're doing must think that's weird. But not as weird as getting a rejection which refers you to the sticky note that tells you you're doing it right.)
 
For those late to this whine, Sirimo's sticky says, "Location data might be "City, County" or "City, State, Country" etc. Date data might be 'month date year" or "date month year" or in rare circumstances where the specific date isn't known just "month year". "

ETA: Credit where it's due: even the pics which were accepted overnight are already showing in search. 

I submitted just the one editorial image in October. Here's the timeline in my example;

24 October - image created
25 October - image uploaded

7 November - image accepted
9 November - image goes live

14 Days from upload to acceptance

16 days from uploading to going live, i.e. available for sale