[sbalamurugan]

Desk rejects also happen regularly from Editors (who are not blind to the author names and affiliations). Editors can also make final decisions to accept or reject when reviewers don't agree.

Even in a blind peer review, the subject of study introduces another layer of bias in the process. Let's say two economics papers are submitted that discusses how people spend their last part of their pay check. One studies a pool of people across United States and other studies of people across Nigeria. Which one do you think is going to get positive review from editors and reviewers? The Nigeria paper might not even go to review. The editor is going to say something on the lines of "the focus of the study is too narrow for the journal" but won't say the same when it is across US. This is in addition to the trust issues with any research conducted outside western countries.

For researchers from the "low ranked" universities, the game is rigged against them and there is nothing they can do to swing it to their favour.

[bombcar]

This would all be turned on its head if any of these papers had actual value and use, because the value would be found and dug up.

But the only value is to get more grants and funding, so they're just complicated beauty competitions.