Dear Steve,
I think you are being a little unfair here. We cannot publish all letters in the Journal. This is made clear in the instructions to authors, which say: “The Journal maintains a lively Letters column and welcomes communications on any subject to do with astronomy, especially those of particular interest to amateurs. Please e-mail to the Editor ….. The Editor reserves the right to shorten or edit letters in the interests of clarity, brevity and style, and to reject material that she does not find significant or interesting. A maximum length of 350 words is recommended.”
The final decision must lie with the Editor and I don’t believe a tighter definition will help.
Kind regards,
Jeremy