There are good solutions, but existing publishers like Elsevier like the current situation because it makes them rich (https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/uc-termina...). Any existing individual academic is strongly incentivized to work within the rotten system, even though most know its pathologies and want to defect—but one person defecting alone will screw up their own career while likely leaving the system intact. The equilibrium is bad even though the solutions aren't complicated. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23291869