"Red herring" in that it's not what the ultimate goal of academic publishing is.
Is prestige very much baked into the practice, profession, career, and culture of academia? Yes. Has it largely always been thus? To the origins of the modern university, if not before -- arguably.
But that's not a necessary role, certainly not for publishing to play, and though giving a thought to side effects and consequences, disrupting the publication cycle might solve a few more problems then it creates.
Or not.
The deeper problem is that demonstrations of correctness don't adhere to publishing, funding, teaching, or even career cycles. Things can be thought wrong for a very long time and proved right, or vice versa. And again, all the prestige in the world won't change the truth value.
Though it will change what truths, or myths, are socialised at any given point in time.
Is prestige very much baked into the practice, profession, career, and culture of academia? Yes. Has it largely always been thus? To the origins of the modern university, if not before -- arguably.
But that's not a necessary role, certainly not for publishing to play, and though giving a thought to side effects and consequences, disrupting the publication cycle might solve a few more problems then it creates.
Or not.
The deeper problem is that demonstrations of correctness don't adhere to publishing, funding, teaching, or even career cycles. Things can be thought wrong for a very long time and proved right, or vice versa. And again, all the prestige in the world won't change the truth value.
Though it will change what truths, or myths, are socialised at any given point in time.