From a researcher perspective, you want people to read your paper - and to cite it. ;) They can't do that if they can't get to it.

I remember a time *before the internet* when you had to go to the University library and browse through physical journals. AND you had to pay by the page to photocopy the articles you wanted. LOL

When things went online, I could only access articles published by journals/sites that my lab/company had a subscription/account for. If I found a paper that seemed related, but it wasn't in ACM (for example) then I had to either pay out of pocket or not use it unless I could track down the author.

Now that things are opening up, I don't want to look back! If I need to look up the latest papers on some obscure topic when I'm working at 10pm at home, I can't wait a few days to go find papers at a library. Even the idea of emailing an author and then waiting a few days is a productivity killer.

On a related note, I was recently working on something really current and fast-moving, so I needed to review papers that were just written (eg. accepted for publication but not yet published.) Being able to view those papers online made my work possible. If I had to wait 6 months for the journal or conference, my work would be out of date even before I finished writing my paper.

The need to move quickly for COVID gave research a kick in the pants. AND tools like GitHub and Jupyter Notebooks, which you can use to show your work, will make science and research more open, transparent, and accountable.

P.S. Good luck with your PhD.