Well... it can be desk rejected. Which I've actually had happen because the paper was already on ArXiv, even though it wasn't against the journal's policy. Took 4 weeks to resolve and then got desk rejected again for "not citing the correct works", with no further information... I don't submit to that journal anymore...

Sure it can, but then it’s not published.

My only point is that if you get published in a journal, at least two people have seen it.