It's called monetizing. You get the perception of status somehow, you go public, you have shareholders, you are obligated to monetize this asset, aka sell this status for money, which devalues the status, but works for some time due to inertia. Paying people to grade the work - especially if they only get money if they grade the work as good - that's selling the grades. Granted, an upper class restaurant may refuse to serve a drunk, and may have a dress code, but don't mistake this for peer review. Conflicts between monetary and other interests are consistently resolved in favour of monetary interests.