The academic market is distorted because of the withholding of final credentials (and for foreign students, the papers to be in the country). That alone suppres

The academic market is distorted because of the withholding of final credentials (and for foreign students, the papers to be in the country). That alone suppresses wages and disincentivizes the hiring of staff scientists who demand the higher natural wage for the work performed. It is further distorted by lacing what would be a better collaborative allocation of resources with instead strong flavors of formalized individual protectionism, whether student or PI. So now your limited funding gets spread to 10 groups secretly doing the same thing and they have to take a lot of shortcuts to "win."