Kristy Bowen, from Dancing Girl Press, characterizes her reason for publishing chapbooks:

I’ve always seen an editor more as a collector.  I know a lot of people see them more as gatekeepers, culling the wheat from the chaff, but I think what I choose depends far more on my own tastes and whims than on any standard of what anyone else considers “good” poetry. What I tend to like or publish might not appeal to everyone all the time, but I always feel a bit more like someone collecting culture rather than passing judgment on  it.

Plenty of more people from a notable variety of presses talking about chapbooks over at the November issue of The Chapbook Review, as well as reviews of five chapbooks.