Taking someone's money to fund research and then not giving them access to that research is theft. If that money is tax money, I'd call it treason.
Doing something about https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayh%E2%80%93Dole_Act seems way more important than fixing publishing...
That seems like hyperbole to me. I think it falls more into the category of "inequitable exchange" or "bad deal".