A common perception, but I edited there for 8+ years (left this year) and I can tell you the shopping eds are a hardworking crew, and the "editor as competitor" story is seldom true. Occasionally someone has gotten away with it for a short run, but they get caught and get tossed. Personally I avoided editing in Shopping/ because it was a terrible spam magnet... when there is no charge for adding a site people will shotgun every page they have to every category (without regard to whether the site meets the written standards)... so the shopping eds spend a lot of time sifting thru garbage to the detriment of getting to actually add decent sites. If we were to place blame for the lack of progress in shopping categories the biggest problem isnt the eds, it's the spammers that screw things up for everyone else. Trust me, no sane person would want to do their job for pay, much less on a volunteer basis... the Shopping eds have a little OCD about putting things in order to even enter that section. Their volunteer model severely restricts their efficiency in some ways, but overall the criticism directed their way is largely just due to misunderstandings of what they're doing or people accepting urban legends at face value. The place is far from perfect but much farther from being the evil empire some rumors would lead you to believe. LOL. The goal of directories is to categorize sites. A static site offering a lawyers or plumbers services is by no means a "blog". Blogs are a distinctive type of site, and having them in a separate spot is just a way of separating things for folks to find 'em easier... which is of course the primary function of a directory. FTR - Having been there... Aside from becoming an editor and being part of the solution (a VERY time intensive way to get a link, seriously, dont bother if that's the goal) there isnt really a special way to get included aside from submitting a decent site that matches their guidelines to the right category. If you read their docs and submit a non-spammy dnoz-compliant title and descrip it increases your odds, but their model isnt the same as pay-for-review or bid directories, the place is basically a collection of what a bunch of volunteers add to a directory at their discretion. They've suffered a lot of bad PR over the years, some deserved, some not, but they've built a better product than many directories using their model, and though many of us outside have things we think would make it better... it's theirs to run as they see fit, not a public utility. I know even when I was there I suggested things I thought would make it better, but not being the head of AOL I cant impose changes on them any more than you can. The trick is to submit and move on. If it gets in, great, if not, there are other ways of promoting a site too.
I don't think an editor can game a section because so many people over the editors add sites. I had the same view a few weeks ago but after talking to some of the members of DMOZ. if you cant get your site listed then become an editor, if you cant become an editor, try to get some support in the dmoz section of this site and I'm sure some of the dmoz editors will help you