Do you have an academic and/or industry background? I'd be curious to hear about what the experience of publishing in an academic journal as outsider was like.
I'm a math PhD, left academia because I have kids and I wanted to give them a better life than you can give kids with a postdoc salary ;) I can't perceive any differences as an outsider vs. insider. Probably some reviewers subconsciously let it influence their judgment, but at least in some fields you can publish in double-blind reviewed journals where your identity is hidden from the reviewers.