Barnstorming on an Invisible Segway

If I asked that question -- and I'm so timid a novice that I've never quite dared ask anyone who might give me an actual answer -- I would mean: Will the editor still let me be published if I won't put that thing in? There are some things that I feel quite strongly don't belong in anything with my name on the cover, that seem to be expected in most fiction written for adults in the last fifty years or so, and one of the issues that has always put me off getting serious about writing for publication is that I'm afraid of some editor giving me the choice between putting those things in and not being published, because I'd have to say no and that would be a waste of everyone's time. (The bit where I can write a coherent 90,000-word narrative and have no idea which character is the 'protagonist' is another, but that's a more recent worry and one I might be prepared to work with someone to fix.)