As another poster put it perhaps Dr Wolfram has chosen to work outside the community recently. The early cellular automata papers were published in peer reviewe

As another poster put it perhaps Dr Wolfram has chosen to work outside the community recently. The early cellular automata papers were published in peer reviewed journals, and the OA contains an anecdote about the external refereeing of one short paper. I read the early autobiographical material as just an older man recording his experiences. A memoir perhaps rather than a review paper. Your post has me thinking about 'independent scientists' more generally. Some defy characterisation as their work is just outside normal categories. An example could be George Spencer-Brown with his Laws of Form, a book that appeared as a complete and dense argument. Spencer-Brown was a colourful character to say the least. Others are sort of 'semi-detached' and do publish papers in mainstream academic journals and do collaborate. Julian Barbour would be my example here. I would imagine that a fair amount of self-confidence is needed (along with resources) to work in this way.