It has been said here many times that DT has very consistent reviews. The only issue seemed to be the "we don't need this image" of an image technically OK. It's certainly subjective, since noise and bad lighting are easy to see, but salability is always a more or less educated guess, based on the reviewer's experience of his own port and that might be biased to some degree.

I agree.

It seems to me that a solution might be to give the benefit of the doubt, and add a time limit into the system. If an image doesn't sell at least once in a given period of time (one year? six months?), then give it the boot. I know we've all read stories of someone who had an image that sat for 2 years without a sale and then out of the blue got an EL. But in most cases, if an image doesn't sell at least once in a year, it probably isn't worth keep around.

I'd rather have the marketplace determine that than a reviewer, who may or may not be right.

One final comment on this "overabundant / too specific" issue, and then I think it's time for me to move on! 

Try this: Do a search for: cheeseburger fries and sort by most recent (upload date - descending).

Of the first 80, look how many images are so similar as to be almost indistinguishable from one another.

The worst offender (more than 40 of the 80!) isn't even a cheeseburger, and many of them don't even have a single french fry! (I realize this last part is a keywording issue, and not related to the overabundant / too specific problem.)

If it's not well covered, then your photo is too specific. You can't win.