How much assumption relaxation : journal review Suppose a theorem in applied probability is true under the assumptions (A1), (A2) and (A3). Suppose,   (A1) is relaxed to (A1)' at the cost of strengthening (A2) and (A3) to (A2)' and (A3)' respectively. I got a review from a prestigious journal that "how much (amount)" is the relaxation from (A1) to (A1)' ? What is meant by that ? Is the reviewer saying that if the relaxation is huge amount compared to the strengthening of (A2) and (A3) then only your result useful.
Any help/suggestion will be useful.
I think you're right. The most straightforward interpretation is that the reviewer wants to know how good the trade-off you have made is. Are you just shifting assumptions around, or have you made a fundamentally important relaxation of assumption A1 such that assumptions A2' and A3' are not much of a big deal.