I was recently rejected and told that my use of adverbs and italics were way too much. That my 'bio' cover letter was too cutesy, and that the person rejecting me didn't know why I wrote the story, that they couldn't boil the theme down to one sentence.

I was told that my descriptions of real life racism in the story were cliched.

So here we find arbitrary rules by which editors of journals measure what is good engaging writing vs. what is not. Sure, it's fine if you want to write for yourself, but if you ever want to submit your work to anyone, you absolutely must give a fuck about these arbitrary rules that define good writing.

I suppose the point is about ones purpose in writing. You want to write for yourself, then yes I agree with you. You want to write or someone else? Then there's definitely a right and wrong way. Every writer understands this. Rejection is a bitch. And it hurts us all. Let's not pretend otherwise.