Always take what you read on any forum (including this one) with a grain of salt.
First of all, there is sometimes intentional sniping from competitors or their surrogates. [This is verified, and not theoretical.]
Secondly, much of the posted distress about "poor" cigar tobacco comes from relative novices in the craft of cigar rolling. More experience usually increases rolling success, and reduces worries over common, minor leaf flaws. A big hole or large tear is still annoying in a wrapper or binder, but these should be (and in my experience are) uncommon from WLT. Holes and tears in filler leaf is common and expected.
Beyond that, some concerns regarding specific leaf varieties that burn poorly are from well recognized, experienced rollers, but who live in particularly humid areas. In such cases, the leaf in question (e.g. Habana 2000) may not be the best burning variety to begin with, but will burn adequately in most other climates. Rumors elsewhere, that Habana 2000 needs longer fermentation, seems to be untrue. [I received several hands of "poor burning" H2000 from an experienced cigar roller in Delaware. A sampling of it initially demonstrated that it burned well. I kilned that leaf an additional month, after which the burn seemed to have changed very little--still just fine. I attribute the discrepancy to differences in average humidity. H2000 is particularly hygroscopic, so it dries very slowly.]
"Bales" of leaf may be between 60 and 600 pounds. There is always considerable variability in the size and quality within a specific bale of leaf, especially in the largest bales. Of course, different growing years produce different leaf. So if you pick 30 or 40 leaves out of a bale that consists of hundreds of pounds of leaf, it is a truly small sample. Waiting for the next shipment may take a long time, and provide you with no better chance of getting "better" leaf than another order from the same bale. Also, some varieties of finished leaf (e.g. Paraguay Flojo) are always less carefully frog-legged at the point of origin than most other varieties. And smetimes a bale of tobacco may be the very last of its kind likely to be available.
Bugs happen. Tobacco beetles are rampant in warehouses within the sub-tropical growing regions. Everybody traps them, sprays for them and minimizes their damage. Likewise, when the imported bales arrive at WLT, Don is well aware of the issue, and takes appropriate measures. But still, bugs happen. [If you grow vegetables at home, then you know that you can only eliminate every last bug at the risk of poisoning yourself.]
The cigar leaf from WLT is the very same stuff that the cigar factories use every day. While it is certainly possible to hand-select each individual leaf in each individual pound of tobacco prior to packaging and shipping, I don't believe that most customers would be ready to pay the price for that intensity of quality control. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe Don should offer "select leaf" tobacco, discard imperfect leaf, and raise the price.
Bob