Yes, they do. And editors -- academics, sometimes paid, usually not -- are the ones who do it. There's a lot of "old boy's network" involved there too, as although each author "suggests" a referee usually the editors submit it to someone not suggested by the authors as well. I didn't include that in the list because it's not really a skill done by the journal, more, as they would say, facilitated by it.

Frankly, they profit from: academics writing articles (funded by someone else); academics editing a journal deciding who should review articles (usually, but not always, for free); academics reviewing articles (always for free); and academics citing articles in subsequent ones.

The whole system is a house of cards, and a relatively immutable one.