Earlier quoted context omitted.
A further issue is peer review quid pro quo corruption. The reviewer loves your paper but requests one small change: cite some of his papers and he’ll approve your paper. I don’t know how prevalent this sort of corruption is (I haven’t read any statistical investigations) but I have heard of researchers complaining about it. In all likelihood it’s extremely prevalent in less reputable journals but for all we know it…
Tbh I used to have an issue with that but these days it really is a small issue in the grand scheme of things. You can say No but also, there are larger systemic problems in science.
You’re right. It’s more of a symptom of the systemic problems than the main problem itself. But it still contributes to my distrust in science.