It is extremely unlikely that authors lose anything from open publication of their research (in fact some provide final versions themselves as preprints on thei

It is extremely unlikely that authors lose anything from open publication of their research (in fact some provide final versions themselves as preprints on their websites). Authors in general get no money for publications. In a weird setup of today authors get benefits from publications of prestige, career, hiring help and other scientists get curation / peer review benefits. If current publication system went away completely and quickly it would be a minor shock to the system, but IMO easy to survive as a replacement curation system would emerge (from conferences, arxiv style, etc.)