@Felix -

Really? You don’t see how closing the ticket immediately is the equivalent to SLAMMING THE DOOR IN MY FACE? Sure, I can knock a second time, but do you really expect me to feel like it? Like, ever again?

I totally get how a ticket closure could be interpreted that way, but it's simply a misunderstanding of the Theme Review Trac workflow. Unlike in core Trac, where a ticket closure means "this won't get implemented", a ticket closure in Theme Trac simply means, "there's more work; please re-submit".

And again: ticket closure is now considerably more rare than it was a year and a half ago. At that time, about 80% of tickets were closed as not-approved; that number is now about 20%. The vast majority of tickets are closed as approved, because the Reviewers work with the developers, in-ticket, to get the Theme through the review process all the way to approval.

You mean those guidelines that might have changed while I was working on my theme? Or for that matter between submitting it and having it reviewed? Those guidelines even reviewers can miss or forget?

The Guidelines don't change that frequently, and never have. When the Theme Review Team first formed, the Guidelines changed frequently as we initially codified them. But since that time, all major Guidelines changes only happen concurrently with major WordPress core releases (with a grace period following release to allow developers time to conform to any new Guidelines).

And if a developer has questions or problems with the Guidelines, we have communication channels in place to resolve them: either in-ticket (for already submitted Themes) or the Theme Reviewers mail-list.

Oh? You don’t see how rejecting a ONE-LINE commercial message at the end while accepting REAMS of advertising INSTEAD of a README is hypocritical? How exactly is ONE LOUSY LINK more abusive? Abusive to whom? Because when looking for themes or plugins as a user I sure feel abused by all the BUY OUR PRO VERSION stuff shoved in my face instead of real information. But nooo… let’s ban a simple, discreet acknowledgement of whoever made the theme in question possible. That’s more fair.

Again: the difference is promoting the developer's own commercial work versus the conflict-of-interest inherent in allowing promotion of "sponsored" work. The WordPress Theme and Plugin directories simply will not and cannot allow "sponsored" work, for what should be obvious reasons.

To not ever bother you with a submission again. It’s that simple. Isn’t that what you need, less pressure on the review team? There you go. You’re welcome.

Aren’t things better now?

No, actually; the Theme Review Team is handling the "pressure" just fine. It's been a three-year growing and learning process, but we have a good system now - as the approximately 250 newly approved Themes added to the Theme directory, and over 800 existing Themes updated, in the past three months will attest.