[Kessler83]

Wow, tell me how you really feel :).

It's not a "supposed reputation" though. Nature is listed as a world-leading journal (class 2) by the internationally widely acknowledged research register "Norwegian Register". The double blind reviews aren't performed by Nature, but by peer scientists. And it isn't gate-keeping. You have every opportunity to publish your stuff in another journal or simply on the internet if you want to. A lot of scientists do the latter before trying to get it into prominent journal. Even in the case of a rejection, the feed-back you get from reviewers is often of very high quality, as in really helping you make your article better, as most journals give the review jobs to experienced scientists in your field.

In other words, a world leading journal generally contributes greatly to what you say in your last paragraph.

That said, I agree with most of your statements in the third paragraph (publish and perish etc.). It's not like I'm claiming that the current system is fine without side-effects, fake-journals etc.. I just don't think there is cause for the kind of suspicions voiced in the thread, in relation to Nature or the OP article.