It would be nice if Nature noted that there should not even be need for Sci-Hub as scientific literature should be open for everyone.
From my understanding:
- The actual research and writing work and most of the formatting is done by the researchers.
- The reviewing is done by other researchers donating their time, or rather, using work time paid with public money to work for free for these commercial entities.
- Most of the distribution is digital.
What actual work worth 9500 EUR (plus whatever they get from subscriptions, because until everyone goes open access there will still be subscriptions) do those publishers do nowadays?
Gatekeeping, degrading the quality of research and keeping the reproducability crisis going aren't cheap you know.