I disagree. Those gatekeepers kept shit out. You may not like everything professionally published, but it was edited, fact checked, etc. You're right, anyone can publish anything now at low cost..and unfortunately they do, making it harder than ever for truly talented writers to get noticed. With so many people now screaming "Look here! Look here!" the eyeballs are perpetually distracted. The average self-published writer is not paying the mortgage with their earnings because their earnings are paltry. But I hope more and more people give up on the traditional publishing dream; it'll make it easier for those of us with talent to get an agent.