assessment

If competitors moderate assets faster, that may well mean that they get less assets to moderate. If you submit seasonal assets, you need to plan this well in advance, and you need to be prepared to have waiting times between several hours and 8 weeks and even more.

Adobe is running this, and they run this to being as successful as possible from their point of view, even if that means that you have to wait more than you are prepared to wait. All moderation is done by humans, that makes it so difficult to add fast more moderation resources as influx increases.

Users don't make the review policies or hiring decisions. Those are decided by Adobe's upper management. They don't participate in these user-to-user communities.

SEASONAL IMAGES are time sensitive.  Allow 6 months lead time for seasonal image approval.  If you delay, you'll miss this year's purchase cycle.  But you'll catch it the following year when the cycle rolls around again.

Stock Customers start buying Fall & Winter images in the Spring & Summer to give themselves ample lead time on deadlines. Similarly, Spring & Summer images get purchased in the Fall & Winter.  Plan your content submissions accordingly.

People do the moderation. If it were a bot, things wouldn't take as long as they do. There is no hard and fast evidence that AI is being given priority over actual photos. AI contributors have been experiencing long waits as well. I have already begun submitting Christmas assets. In the overall scheme of things, it's never too early to begin submitting seasonal material.

All that said, we don't know the actual reason some people are waiting as long to have their assets reviewed.