There is plenty of poor work out there. I've seen it at craft fairs and in galleries. The main problem is that there is a natural cycle that turners follow:
Turners buy the gear and practice for a while, then make their first few masterpieces. Once their house is full and every one they know has a bowl of wooden fruit, is writing with a wooden pen, bakes with a wooden rolling pin...... what do you then do with the stuff you make? You sell it.
The problem is, at this point the work won't be good enough to sell! I know this because I've seen it so many times, and it was also me once upon a time.
Now days, this sort of stuff doesn't bother me because I operate in a different market to the hobbists, supplying the trade mostly, if my work isn't up to scratch then I get told, in no uncertain terms that it needs to improve - or worse, I get no more work and a poor reputation! My reputation is very important to me as I've worked very hard to get it to where it is!
There are some basics that people need to be able to do before they can sell work:
* Produce work with no torn grain
* Produce work without finishing marks, swirls or rings on it
* Produce work with no catches showing on it
* Produce work of good proportion and form
This last one is arguabley the most difficult but all can be achieved if you listen to feedback without getting the hump, and can be critical of your own work, honest enough with yourself that the term 'that will do' isn't ever used.
Richard