It's totally broken. It's pal review.
The reviewers aren't paid. They don't go and look at the data. They just sort of go, “Yes, that sounds all right.” Retraction Watch publishes, and then you get this endless retraction of peer-reviewed papers.
The system is busted through and through. As for the idea that it has to be public because a private system would be corrupted, the public system is deeply corrupted.