I all fairness, I don't think the grandparent post disagrees with anything that is in the parent post here.

Yes, academia has tried to quantify prestige via impact factor and peer-reviewed journals. Yes, lots of people (even in Academia) feel that the system is being gamed, with by the publishing houses that own the journals being a common scapegoat.

The system isn't broken, but it also keeps its integrity through some dynamic tension: a bit of criticism is a good thing.