Actually, many editors are not accepted on the first try
I feel so special... shame you didn't say all but one <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />. Would that make me like the chosen on <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" />?
I'd guess that you have to 'want' to become an editor, and agree with the higher purpose of the ODP, or at least acknowledge it. A friend of mine just wanted to edit to get his own sites listed, or have some kind of bizarrely inaccurate feeling of power, and guess what... he didn't get in. I just wish I'd been a Meta reading his proposal... I'd love to see what he'd written...
Anyway, I reckon that you should be honest. If you don't agree with the 'uber-directory' idea, perhaps you shouldn't be an editor at all. If you do, let them know when you're applying. And yeah, don't take a cat too big, they have good reason not to give many sites to a first-timer... you can get stuff wrong, and they're the ones who end up correcting it. My first cat only had 30-odd sites in it - you can always apply for more later. Course, I'm not a meta, so I don't know precisely what criterea they look for. Just my two cents (pence, where I live... pence, dammit... msut remember...)