I wouldn’t say it’s a joke, rather it’s not perfect. When papers are reviewed, there are going to be a finite number of spots in the journal or conference to b

I wouldn’t say it’s a joke, rather it’s not perfect. When papers are reviewed, there are going to be a finite number of spots in the journal or conference to be assigned competitively. In good places, the reviewers catch issues in the papers and it won’t be easy to pass them. Without peer review, a PhD student requesting graduation or a candidate applying for a faculty position would claim they have done major work, and there is no way to filter out the noise.