You have it. You can self-publish.

Publishers are not actually idiots. By and large, they know what sells.

Self publishing doesn't work because there is no filter for quality or editing.

I guess I'm not sure what you mean by "doesn't work." I've gone through publishers and self-published. They come with different tradeoffs including the complaints about how publishers want a book to flow as described upthread.

Reviews are at least something of a filter.