In my experience you find a lot of spectrum. Keep in mind that reviewers today are the authors tomorrow. Some people in academia are incredibly arrogant and vie

In my experience you find a lot of spectrum. Keep in mind that reviewers today are the authors tomorrow. Some people in academia are incredibly arrogant and view themselves as the next Feynman, and dismiss marginal advances or small results. Anything under perfection and lots of work behind isn't worth publishing. But you have also the honest ones that can recognize value in the small advances. But in general you are right: we deserve this because the amount of arrogance is too high, and more often than not you have to deal with someone who firmly believes they deserve the Nobel price.