The group of gatekeepers is not small. When Science Twitter was still a thing, two common topics were editors complaining about how difficult it is to find peer

The group of gatekeepers is not small. When Science Twitter was still a thing, two common topics were editors complaining about how difficult it is to find peer reviewers and academics complaining how many review requests they get. Pretty much every established researcher is involved in the gatekeeping, and they can devote as much time to it as they want. In many fields, preprints have been an established practice for a long time. That allows us to see the alternative to peer review. The main variables that predict how much attention your preprint gets are your name and the topic. With all its imperfections, peer review at least gives a second chance for less known researchers working on less fashionable topics.