A journal is a way of ensuring that the paper you are about to read meets a minimum standard of quality. My anecdote: the second worst paper I've ever read was

A journal is a way of ensuring that the paper you are about to read meets a minimum standard of quality. My anecdote: the second worst paper I've ever read was an ArXiv paper, presented by a young researcher who had no idea of how bad this paper was, Had I not teared it down (which was a very unpleasant experience for everyone involved) it would have been further propagated by other young researchers. And the worst paper? Submitted to a conference, rejected outright during review, and I still wonder if someone was trying to sneak a machine-generated article for fun. No one has the time to keep up with all the research coming out, not to mention all the fake research published in bad faith. Life is not restricted to Elsevier and ArXiv, and there are sane alternatives out there.