I’ve noticed that several authors have a little fun at the expense of publishers (see quote). Does anyone know anyone who likes them?
Terry Pratchett, Maskerade:
“And he dreamed the dream of all who publish books, which was to have so much gold in your pockets that you needed to pay two people just to hold your pants up.”
No. Not even the most talented and most imaginative author of fantasy can make an extrapolation that far-fetched.
Speaking as a published author…
Madeleine L’Engle repeatedly mentions her publisher in her autobiographical books, and has nothing but good things to say.
Unless you’re a best selling author, most publishers treat authors badly. It’s dozens of things: screwing around with royalty statements, listing a book as “indefinitely out of stock” so you the author can’t get his rights back, basket accounting, poor publicity, etc.
Some small presses treat their authors well, but there are too many instances where the publisher screwed them over.
One of the small publishers we deal with is a wonderful person. We’ve got other friends who are publishers who have conflict with the writers they publish 
but who as friends are wonderful generous people.
The bigger the company, the worse they tend to be. And it’s rarely the editors who are the problem, it’s the people tending the bottom line who suck.
Isaac Asimov thought very highly of the publishers/editors of the collections of his FS&F (?) essays. He routinely spoke highly of other editors like Campbell from “The Golden Age”. But these were not works of fiction. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised though if he didn’t have positive editor roles in a piece of fiction or two. I am just not as familiar with that part of his work.
OTOH, Douglas Adams attitude towards the HGTTG publishers (within the book) is a great example of the OPs point.
Asimov didn’t mock publishers, mostly because he was so busy mocking critics, instead. It’s the same sentiment, just directed a little differently.