Why don't they just pay for all of the major science publications to have free access for everyone - not just requiring it of the authors they subsidize?
It would be an interesting experiment to negotiate a single annual payment to all journals to make them publish all articles in an easily downloadable and extractable form.
I guess the publishers would not accept any payment less than their current (very large) profits, so you'd basically be locking in those profits and the system wouldn't get any cheaper.
I think they'd accept a smaller payment (and I'm guessing like you). if you could guarantee them a fixed profit, without the need to compete, advertise, print things, etc, that's just easier.
The idea would be to negotiate terms that are favorable (enabling more scientific research and public access to funded research).
