What makes papers publishable in top-tier journals? What are some factors that enable some papers to be published in top-tier journals while others (apparently similar) cannot?

For example, in the field of control theory, there are so many papers with complicated mathematics. Some paper is related to a very similar topic, but some get published in a top-tier journal while others not. 

This question is important because knowing this, then I know which journal my paper might be submitted to that is possible to be accepted in the end.
To be accepted and published it has to be submitted. Some papers that might be accepted just aren't ever submitted. 

Some of it is just luck. The editor was looking for something. Even something as simple or stupid as s/he needed to fill an 8 page gap in an issue and yours was the best available candidate at the moment. 

Some of it is just the writing itself. Good journals want, and try to get, well written, understandable, papers. If the reviewers have trouble understanding you, it will be hard to get accepted. 

But most of it is that a paper answers a question (or two) that seems important at the time the paper arrives. It is the science/mathematics/whatever behind the paper that really matters. The members of a scientific community are fairly often on the lookout for an answer to a perplexing problem. If you can provide that, and submit a well written paper, you are more likely to get published.