The three novels I've submitted have garnered a total of almost 170 rejections.
Of those, maybe 10-20 were partials.
5-7 were fulls.
2-3 were revision requests to resubmit.
Some of the feedback I got made no sense or was completely daft ("Needs more romance." It's a frigging horror story, you dumb sod), or conflicting with itself (in the initial feedback she said "Change this from blue to red (example)" when i changed it and resubmitted, she said, "You should've changed this from red to blue, no thanks." )
Some of the feedback was super helpful and I liked it a lot and it made the book better.
I once submitted to an agent, got a form rejection. Months later, I had forgotten I'd submitted to him, sent the EXACT same query, got a request for a full (?!!).
I do not have an unusually high opinion of myself as a writer. The best I will say about my own stuff is that it's coherent. You can understand what is happening. And my dialogue is pretty good. That is actually a helluva lot more than I can say for some of the things I've seen on physical and digital shelves.
So, after paying my dues for 9 years and working my tail off in a void and getting doors slammed in my faces that whole time; after getting a degree in this stuff, winning some contests, and getting so damn close to the finish line it almost kills me to think about it, I have well and truly paid my dues. Is Ms. Picoult or anybody else says otherwise, they can pound sand.
So I'm self publishing. I will make at least $1 off my writing and somebody who I've never met, or spoken/written to before will read at least one paragraph of mine before I die. Because I've banged my head against the traditional route for years and it sure as hell isn't gonna happen that way.