I Wish I Could Understand The Editors Job Better!

I would love a closer look at the job of an editor/copy editor. I am just curious what determines something needs editing in an article. I understand the format, grammar, spelling, punctuation aspect but the rest of it has completely boggled my mind. I have the up most respect for any and all editors.Without them, my job would be hard to accomplish if I could accomplish it at all.  I do not pretend I know what their job is like, hence, this post. But my last few rewrites have been so outrageous that I wonder if each editor sees a title a certain way before actually starting the editing process. Do they already have information pertaining to a specific topic before they review the article from the author's perspective? I would really just like a inside look into the job...this way I can better understand the rewrites that are confusing.

Here is my latest rewrite request....maybe it is just me who cannot see the reasoning behind requests like these. It contains no site specific information and the article will not be published at the original site as I chose to release the title for someone else to write it.

Topic: Choosing Icing Colors for Daisy Cakes

My Sentence: According to *******, there are four popular colors of icing to decorate a daisy cake. Leading the popular colors list are yellow and white, the traditional daisy colors. Quickly following are bright pink and lavender.

Rewrite Request: I see you have listed yellow and white, pink and purple but what is the fourth color you mentioned?

After my last rewrite was rejected (as I said it would be in my last post) I chose to just ignore the request and release the title and move on. I just would like to have the knowledge to see an article through an editors view. I think it would help me out tremendously.