What open access does do is help researchers in smaller institutions and institutions in poorer countries to have easier access to papers. This is HUGE. If you

What open access does do is help researchers in smaller institutions and institutions in poorer countries to have easier access to papers. This is HUGE. If you work/study at a place with less resources it becomes annoying to try and get papers for journals your instn doesn't subscribe to. This is a barrier to research that just should not be there.