Nobody benefits from this system except publishers. Academics hate it, but publications is the way they are measured by public institutions for, e.g., grants,

Nobody benefits from this system except publishers. Academics hate it, but publications is the way they are measured by public institutions for, e.g., grants, or when being hired. There's no symbiosis, it has evolved in this way mostly because of decisions taken by non-academics (ministries, governments, administrative staff etc.) and nobody knows how to get out of it.