Anyone doing academic writing, from students at university to scientists, nurses, doctors, engineers, math teachers, vets, all need to read and reference many, many of these academic texts to do any sort of research.
Now imagine every time you want to cite anything, you can only read the synopsis at best because every source wants you to spend $50.
It's normal to need like 50 references for a research paper by the way (although students can get away with 10-20)
I'm sure locking the culmination of human knowledge behind a paywall and limiting the amount of people that can contribute to that knowledge will end well for the species.
In a few decades (maybe less) the only good research is going to be coming out of China and some of the other BRICS countries.
I'm already seeing way more papers from China than I did years ago when I first tried Uni
That's exactly what it is now wdym? Most of the cutting edge scientific articles (both literature reviews and especially research papers) come from China/ Chinese researchers. Do you know how difficult it is to get funding for research in the US?
In China it's probably easier AND more coordinated.
Because China is investing in the STEM fields. While in the west „Economic Engineers“ are focused on dismantling industrial machinery.