> yeah idk but something like curation is done by commitee (to try and maintain a minimum of quality overall) but as an author is super easy to appply/get editors/feedback/publish

This is very much what pragprog.com is meant to be. I'm only on the volunteer curation committee so have less insight into the feedback cycle for authors post-acceptance, but every author who's published on the platform I've talked to has been pretty positive about the experience.

The OP didn't go into nearly as many (indeed, any) details as to why their second publishing attempt with them in particular did not work out, I'd be curious to learn more.