"Unless you assume all interested parties are from the academic world, that is.."
But seriously, how many people aren't? Yes yes there is always that one guy in his attic or log cabin... Most university libraries offer subscriptions to externals, too (mine does for less than 50 USD a year). So it's really only for people who are interested in academic materials, who are outside of any reach of a university (because really all you have to do is become member of a university library to get access to the electronic materials from the comfort of your own home). How many people fit that criterium? I'm arguing that overall, the problem is mostly in people's minds.
I work in the private sector with no academic affiliations. I find I use various IEEE/scientific papers roughly once a month. Some companies are small, and won't pay for things like papers. Some companies are large and have crappy bureaucracies/"cost saving measures" for getting a $15 paper off the internet. I'm not saying I need it all to be free, because I do always end up with the paper I want, I'd just like to add an anecdote that it's not all academia. But you're mostly right, access is not too much of a problem.
> Most university libraries offer subscriptions to externals, too (mine does for less than 50 USD a year).
Can you show me one that does? You're saying as a non-institutionally affiliated individual, I can pay a university library $50/year and get access to papers? Please, which school offers this, or what search terms should I be using? please. times a googleplexamonium.
Many, if not most, universities in the US offer something like this, from what I've seen. The one issue though, is that "non affiliated" users don't always get the same kinds of access as students / professors, at least in terms of accessing things from off-campus.
So, if you, for example, went and paid the UNC-CH library your $25.00 fee for a "borrower's card"[1], you don't get the ability to access all the various digital databases and what-not from your home, but you can drive down to the library, use the computer there, and access basically everything anyone else can. Or you can go down and ask the reference librarian to hunt down a paper for you and get you a paper copy.
On a semi-related note... I'm not sure what other states and jurisdictions have something like this, but here in NC we have something called "NC Live"[2], which is a portal that provides access to all sorts of online digital resources (including many which would otherwise be fairly expensive) to anyone with a library card from pretty much any county/city library in the whole state.
But seriously, how many people aren't? Yes yes there is always that one guy in his attic or log cabin... Most university libraries offer subscriptions to externals, too (mine does for less than 50 USD a year). So it's really only for people who are interested in academic materials, who are outside of any reach of a university (because really all you have to do is become member of a university library to get access to the electronic materials from the comfort of your own home). How many people fit that criterium? I'm arguing that overall, the problem is mostly in people's minds.