As a QandAEditor, I'd like to support a patch to remove the confusing designation of Approved vs. Unapproved. I submitted a simple patch long, long ago to do the same thing as you describe. Lack of followup on my part...yada yada

I'm not sure a "typical" approval process would help in Q&A. Often, answers need to be tweaked/improved, not simply approved. One of the most common tasks I perform in Q&A is to consolidate a variety of answers into one, keeping the best, most concisely worded points from a number of posts. An open approval process would not help this happen.

What about a "closed" approval process (only QandAEditors could approve)? If new posts were not visible until approval, we would likely get multiple identical posts (because the poster keeps submitting when his/her post does not immediately appear). If new posts were visible, but not yet approved, what meaning does approval carry?

As an Editor, I'd like to have a tool to help manage new questions/answers, and an "unapproved" flag would help (we could view all unapproved in one easy-to-navigate list). Short of reexamining the Q&A definition of "approval" (set a "new/unapproved" flag on each new post, decide to display/hide those posts, and provide an easy means for Editors to navigate those), I'd support just displaying all answers the same...