im glad you mentioned journal, cause both their trailers, the one with the celebration song and the one with snowflakes were awesome. began with a great vibe. laid back songs.
and when i think about the editing in those movies i think that attention was paid to the music, and each part of the edit and it really makes it stand out.
i've been watching the journal trailer since the day the first one came out, because it really does get you stoked for skiing, and thats a really good measure of a good trailer.
back to what you said first, i definitely know what you're talking about. i film a decent amount, and edit quite a bit for fun, more than i need to for edits and contests. without quality filming though, its really hard to make the edit turn out good. it happened for me this year because my camera was stolen, so i ended up with a lot of second hand footage form people i dont espeically trust with a camera, and it ws much harder to edit a good promo. im relatively content with how it turned out. (check it out if u want? critique and such.) but better footage would have stepped it up undoubtedly.
screens and text i generally just think of as editing, but technically youre right, its motion effects.
and i think camera work (stability, creativity, lighting, background, angle, etc.) are hugely more important than editing because, as you said.
"if someones editing is roughly close to that of a highschool film student, it doesnt matter. "
but if someones filming is bad, it wont turn out a good edit.