[microtonal]

Said author is entirely free to not enter into it in the first place, of course.

In some fields it's not that free. The choice between publishing in a high-impact Elsevier journal or a low-impact journal with acceptable terms is not really a choice if you want to have a career in science.

[LambdaAlmighty]

Wrong, the authors do have a choice.

Many choices, in fact. Including & not limited to: raising awareness of Elsevier's reprehensible practices, writing blogs, commenting on online forums. Lobbying various institutions. Not signing an explicit contract with Elsevier? Definitely a choice.

"Society made me do it" is always a pathetic excuse.

[camelite]

You must have missed the second part of his sentence. It begins with "if".