Very true. Also, a new federal policy is now in place and requires any research funded even in part by federal money be open access. As a result we should see much more high quality research becoming open access (already has begun). Only downside is research labs like mine have to use more money to publish to these journals because open access costs more for the authors. Hopefully this system gets reformed during my lifetime.
But yes, please just email the authors! Works most of the time and I think it’s fun.