Hans I've discussed this points in other comments (check them out), so I'll be brief cause it's boring to repeat myself:

- the "basic editorial process" you mention is so basic that it many journals can't even get rid of typos (people in Twitter have a blast spotting them), and does nothing to accelerate peer review (the true review process which is, by the way, performed by scientists for free — not by the journals)

- journals do nothing for "quality assurance." The Lancet was the one to publish the infamous study that linked MMR vaccines to autism (now debunked) that spawned a whole anti-vaxx movement. There is also the existence of predatory journals (google this) which straight up don't give a shit about what they publish.

- Hans, taxes pay for the research. Then journals charge scientists to have their research published (yes, the journal charges the scientists for the product they give them so that they can charge again to scientists and universities). If someone (like Alexandra) takes that study (funded by taxes) and gives it to the people (the people who fund the goddamn study in the first place and therefore already paid for it), she is only "a criminal" under the very specific legislations that journals have abused for decades.

- The same funding that pays for research should pay for the editors. They dish out millions of dollars in abusive journal subscriptions — you can bet if we burn journals down there be plenty of money to have 100 times more editors on the payroll