Yes. This.
I have a short story that became a series of short stories that became a short novel that is now 110K+ words that I plan to self-publish… and it needs an editor to go over it to give advice on chapters and what to cut and style tweaks and probably a cover designer… and all this will cost hundreds of dollars and why? Why not just toss something no one will read into the void rather than spend all that money that could go to people who need it (not saying editors and designers don’t, mind you) and then toss that (hopefully) better book into the void where no one will read it?
Even my wife doesn’t especially want to read it, she goes into Supportive Wife mode and smiles and says encouraging things but if it’s okay, she’ll wait until the final edits are done to read it. It’s okay, luv, sure, I understand, no problem, you have things to do.
And I have things to do.
Why don’t I do those instead.