Anyone doing academic writing, from students at university to scientists, nurses, doctors, engineers, math teachers, vets, all need to read and reference many, many of these academic texts to do any sort of research.
Now imagine every time you want to cite anything, you can only read the synopsis at best because every source wants you to spend $50.
It’s normal to need like 50 references for a research paper by the way (although students can get away with 10-20)
I’m sure locking the culmination of human knowledge behind a paywall and limiting the amount of people that can contribute to that knowledge will end well for the species.
Honestly, while I wish I didn’t live in it and hate the human toll, I’m fine with the western “garden” financializing itself into obsolescence and worse while the rest of humanity marches towards a brighter future. Whatever material gain occurs in the west, until the imperialist world system of the west dies off completely, will first be used to harm the rest of the world 1000x over before it is used for good, anyways.