Speaking as an outsider who mostly knows how academic publishing really works from reading occasional blogs that complain about the subject, the entire system s

Speaking as an outsider who mostly knows how academic publishing really works from reading occasional blogs that complain about the subject, the entire system seems like something straight out of a Douglas Adams novel. "Why don't you just stop doing X thing you don't like?" "Because if we do, they won't let us do Y thing we do like. Or, well, we would like it, except the way they make us do it is so awful." "So stop doing that, too, or go do it your own way instead." "But if we don't do Y thing we don't like, then they also won't let us do Z thing. Incidentally, we don't like that one, either. But we need it to be able to do X."