Please help understand this rejection due to quality

The composition is key!!

Apart from exposure & other defects in both of them, the accepted image has better composition than the rejected one.

I think that's your answer.

Both should have been rejected on quality issues, as your sensor has dust stains.

In addition, both assets are underexposed. As for other issues, they can't be checked, as your images asa posted here are too small. Those are not the assets as submitted, or for most quality issues, it is primordial to post the original quality as submitted.

They are very similar to each other, and Adobe seems to be rejecting a lot of "similars," often seemingly without just cause. In this case, if a buyer wanted a closer crop, they could easily do that on their end.

In the photo above, you can see the dust on the sensor.

in my opinion, not only for the color and exposure, but also because the whole body is visible, so it is more easily identifiable