Except that the plural of anecdotes is definitely not data, because without controlling for confounding variables and sampling biases, you will get garbage.
Sorry, but a VAT is paid for by the final consumer. US suppliers paying taxes would be a manufacturer's sales tax (MST), but they went out of style decades ago. If any states are dumb enough to still have an MST, maybe they should start there.
I agree that this approach is much better for stability. The trade off is that a lot of systems will end up missing their needed security updates. Very few people are consciously balancing their type I and type II errors when considering upgrade strategies.
Peer review for academic papers is typically anonymous. She would have been familiar with the process. In the end, the editor (in this case the manager) takes responsibility for the decision.