Well, I'll disagree about epithets. Sometimes I use epithets for stylistic reasons, and sometimes I use them to indicate the attitude of the p.o.v. character. (and occasionally, because I'm trying to make the word count right...) Those aren't excuses, they're reasons, and usually ones which the author has thought out beforehand. Your dislike of epithets under any and all circumstances is going to sound awfully ranty to any author who employs them the way I do. (Which may be why you get rants in return for your comments.)

I'll agree with you that concrit is hard. And frustrating, even if it's just a matter of diction, when the author doesn't respond.