Author here, sorry about the paywall, I am trying to experiment with different ways of growing my readership and subscribers. You can get past the paywall by signing up for a 7-day free trial. It can be canceled at any time. If this really rubs you the way then I am making this draft link of the whole article available for a limited time: https://erikexamines.substack.com/p/bc1449ba-7e0d-43b6-8d53-...

Some of the questions popping up here regarding significance of different components of the Gutenberg invention is addressed in a linked article:

https://erikexamines.substack.com/p/why-was-the-printing-pre...

This discusses technologies existing in Europe at the time but not in China, which Gutenberg could leverage to create his printing system.

To clarify the point here isn't to suggest a civilization or society is superior to another. It is a discussion about printing systems, not people or languages.