While I agree with the spirit of this piece, Andrew Wiles did not publish nothing for 7 years. He had a literal drawer full of pre-prepared papers of which he regularly published one, in order to fulfill his obligations and thus to have the time and freedom to think about what he wanted to think about.

The real tragedy here is the question what all people like him could accomplish if they didn't have to use 3/4 of their time and energy on bureaucracy and jumping through endless stupid hoops. (But oh! What would the world come to, if people didn't have to PROVE that they deserve to do research/eat/live/go to the doctor - in the specific way someone came up with to minimize one kind of error over the other ...! /sarcasm)