I have seen all sorts of crooked behaviour in academia, such as reviewers demanding authors to cite their unrelated papers. However, this article's main premise

I have seen all sorts of crooked behaviour in academia, such as reviewers demanding authors to cite their unrelated papers. However, this article's main premise seems to be predicated on another assumption that is also terrible for academia - elitism. Specifically, this quote > There were people that published in journals that no serious mathematician reads, whose work was cited by articles that no serious mathematicians would read, coming from institutions that nobody knows in mathematics is really bad. It suggests one can be a 'serious' mathematician only if you went to XYZ universities and published in ABC journals. This elitism is the main reason why people try to game the system in the first place, because they know that they can't advance in their careers unless they build that perception of prestige. The single minded focus on prestige is then what smothers the real science.