If something can be improved, why not improve it?

Had someone else read something I wrote recently.  I criticized a system of closed data, and then suggested a crowdsourced solution to get around the data guardians (not illegally, just through data mining from published works).  This person’s response?  To say that closed data should be closed because someone paid for it, and to ignore my solution.  In another section, I lamented various issues with data digitization projects, because I wanted to add another (citable) voice that could be used for digitization project funding.  Response: these issues aren’t new, and you don’t need to waste your time with them.

Who is it going to hurt to try to improve things?  It’s no skin off anyone else’s nose.