Looks like a CROW to me but I ain’t no zoologist

It's not federated, but arXiv is free and volunteer supported:

https://info.arxiv.org/about/index.html

Big grants and research money connections are typically only accessible because your paper got published in a "reputable" journal, which of course you only have a chance of getting if you publish with a "reputable" system.

Short Answer - Universities

Long Answer:

To get and hold a job as an academic, you must continually produce "high quality research". To get the job, in the first place, you must also be seen to do this.

"High quality" is often metriced by universities to mean "published in high impact journals" and "well cited". This metric is known to be faulty, but universities really dislike change.

So, to get a job, you have to give up your rights to your research, and to keep your job, you have to do likewise.

Worse, in the current financial climate, academia is seeing unprecedented cuts, which further entrenches this issue.

Publishing is a racket. This should have been done decades ago.

There is a added bonus here as well - some researchers will not only send the paper, but also offer to answer questions AND send other related papers.

Some academics out there are just really friendly people.