So... are we done politely coughing and looking out the window at the idea that the gatekeeping was motivated by altruism so that we can move on and just use this much better innovation model going forward? Various (subjectively judged) SOTAs on at least some subset of at least this family of tasks is changing somewhere between daily and hourly right now. I've been watching this stuff closely since fairly early Image…
If researchers have great products or findings to show off, it's easier than ever to simply publish them somewhere online and let impressed audiences spread the word. Gatekeepers have been irrelevant to truly great science for a long time.
It's mediocre science that needs gatekeepers to distinguish it from not-even-mediocre, truly substandard research.