Agreeing with you, and also answering the GP: The issue I see is that "Academia" is not the same as "the scientists", there is a larger community, that include

Agreeing with you, and also answering the GP: The issue I see is that "Academia" is not the same as "the scientists", there is a larger community, that includes institutions, processes, administrative people, etc. So, yes, for instance, I would love that we all published our papers in, say, arxive, an we were evaluated by the actual impact of our publications (~ PageRank). But that is not how the funding organizations, hiring committees, etc, are going to do it. How to do the transition from the current state of things to a better one, and not to commit career suicide? That is the question, and that is what those boycotts are aiming to, I believe.