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The only for work to have an impact is if it gets exposure. Publishing in journals got you an audience, but that audience is gatekept by peer review, which has its problems.

So sure, you could publish but the chance of having an impact was low. Thankfully that's changed a bit with arxiv.

Their survival instinct.

Nothing stops them, some people do do that. Two examples that come to mind are Aella's research on fetishes[1] and Scott Alexander's research on birth order effects[2]. But you don't get academic credibility by publishing online without peer review, and it's much harder to get university funding.

[1] https://aella.substack.com/p/fetish-tabooness-vs-popularity

[2] https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/01/08/fight-me-psychologists...