[tokinonagare]

> The point of publishing something in a journal is to have people _more_ able to read it, not less!!

There won't be anything to read if most researchers are gatekept out of publishing in the first place.

> Generally people without funding support e.g. from 'developing countries' are able to publish for free via a fee waiver, as the article suggests.

Money issue is an issue in a lot of countries, not just developing ones. In France research budget are slimmer every year and it's not unusual for researchers to pay things like travel to conferences from their own pocket. Even when the institution is paying, it's often only refunding months after the fact, so researchers have to pay in advance and god forbid they ever lost a paper or else they won't see their money back.

And then there is the case I mentioned in other comments like myself who are out the academic system (or tries to enter it but have no support yet) but still having papers they want to publish. I don't want to shell out half or a full month of salary to publish a PDF that will be read by a dozen of person worldwide.