There is this other thread about Spider-Man editorial hate towards readers. I don't mean to invalidate that argument, because a strong case can be made for it, but it's still a hypothesis. I'm thinking the main problem with Spider-Man editorial (and many other editorial offices) is just a matter of being out of touch with current sensibilities. Joe Quesada certainly started this by callously bulldozing Spider-Man back to the status he himself enjoyed when he was a kid. Pretty much like Geoff Johns and Dan Didio did in DC with their Bronze Age fanfics.
After OMD, the policy was to go back to happy go lucky lovable goofball screwball single Peter Parker, while the OMD wound was not just open (as it remains and will remain for as long as Marvel exists) but it was actually oozing. And since then, there seems to be a displacement between what editorial policies impose and the audience's current zeitgeist (cue Dan Slott mentioning sales figures, when we all know things are way more complex than that, him included, but anyway).
The obvious case study is the current ASM run. It really reads as something Zeb Wells would have liked to do had he been given the chance of a proper ASM run when he was young (around the time he wrote Shed and the original Wayep story). A story like the current one would still have caused stirs and groans but it wouldn't have felt so jarring set during the era of The Initiative or Dark Reign. Those were dark and edgy times. Take Wells and Nick Lowe, young guys then, now middle-aged and in position to decide where the story would go. Of course they'll go back to what they would have done fifteen years ago if they were calling the shots.
The problem is that the audience changes constantly. The stories we wanted to tell a few years ago will not work now. They can complain about people having shorter attention spans, but it is what it is. Is it a good thing? Is it a bad thing? Or is it just a real thing? People having less resistance to drama and abrasive status quos? Same logic. The world is getting uglier, and fast.
- Climate change: even the most defiant deniers, even the ones who think it's a natural phenomena, we all feel it in our bones. That's a lot of unaddressed existential dread.
- Democracies all over the world failing, autocracies rising. Like it or not, most of the western world has been taking the benefits of civilized democracies for granted for a few generations now. Nos it feels as if it could all go away anytime.
- Corporate culture seeping into all aspects of our lives: our jobs, entertainment, consumer experience. The quality of everything degrades when corporate culture takes over.
- Traditionalist jerks furiously resisting the push of many minorities for more and better representation. That fight got ugly fast.
We could go on. But whatever the case, shit's getting bad and people are getting increasingly sensitive. And lots of media forms are catching up to that. Comic creators can complain about not being given room to cook and audiences being more sensitive and impatient, but I don't think that's the answer. There's always room to tell the stories you want to tell if you try to zero in on the zeitgeist. Want to use decompressed storytelling? Tough shit, it no longer works. Publish your story as a 96 page graphic novel and leave monthlies alone. Long, winding stories that drag on with escalation after escalation? Yeah, no. That worked in the 90's and 00's. By the 10's we started getting tired of it. You had a good run with it, it no longer works, move on. Aggressive status quo? OK, but get to the fucking point quick. Mystery boxes? Same.
ASM is failing at almost everything current audiences prefer, while professionals complain about toxic fandoms, news sites only produce press releases and the occasional fluff piece, and notable comic book analysts/podcasters/reporters complain on Twitter about audiences having those preferences. Sorry. Not liking what happens in a story is as good a reason as any to dislike the story.
I'm not young, but I try to see what young people want and sync with it. Message to comic pros: we are right and you are wrong.