Yeah, all I could gather from the article is that published-paper probably translates into padding out your resume. I don't doubt this could translate to one's likelihood of landing a prestigious job, a better salary, hiring bonus, etc.

There are countries where academic jobs have very firm "Publish X papers for promotion" thresholds, but where the venue for the paper doesn't really matter. This is one of the major markets for paper mills.

Look what happens in biotech constantly they prop up studies and results in papers and then they hedge with buying puts as they know it's all bs and they have raised enough exit liquidity to make huge profits on the drop.