hmm. Well, this is were we disagree. No, this goes beyond the question; if you're being anal over something this minor then what other minor things are you going to be anal over? I guess I'd take my chances; other than GWS, I haven't heard many compelling arguments AGAINST an anal agent.....
I've also seen many agents not care whether a writer has a rhetorical question in his/her query. I'm not sure I've seen ANY say they don't care or welcome them. Again, they don't expect perfection. They're most likely going to get queries with things they don't like. And, I don't agree with you that they're looking for reasons to reject, they're looking for reasons to want to read pages. It's easy to find a reason to reject something since they probably get so few "perfect" queries. kango, I spoke to a girl here who was interning, and she said on slow days the interns get like 20 queries. In addition to other duties. So yes, their process is a triage process. I've also seen agents say as much. You can choose not to believe them, decide perhaps these aren't real agents, they're pod-peopel spreading a gospel of anal anality in totality, or however you're processing this, but the bottom line is agents have NOT been shy about saying they dislike them. So other than pissing rights, I'm not sure why one would insist they leave them in. Then again, a query is a bit like a resume or a business pitch; I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone, other than maybe a couple slackers in bad comedies smoking weed in their mother's basement, say "man, its just a recume; you do what you can, but don't stress, man..."
where exactly in the bigger world is it considered practical advice to not try to give the interviewer what they want? Competition is fierce; if you decide you're not going to listen there's at least twenty people right alongside you who will.....so how this is a "winning strategy" eludes me, but hey, everyone is free to make their own decisions. Besides, at one point, I may be querying against you, and I do intend to listen to the agents....so by all means....tell 'em you're pulling a Sinatra and doing it your way.
And...those very few agents speak for ALL of them? Like most people here, i've read more than my fair share of agent twitter feeds, facebook pages, blogs, interviews, etc. and i've never seen one agent say this, though if I did, s/he would be the last person I'd query.