Research Highlights: A study of over 20,000 adults found that those who followed an 8-hour time-restricted eating schedule, a type of intermittent fasting, had a 91% higher risk of death from cardiovascular disease. People with heart disease or cancer ...
I’ve been to 30 or so national or international conferences in biology, and have never had an abstract rejected. I don’t think I’m doing anything special, so I assume pretty much everyone gets in. More presenters = more money. I’ve also been on the selection committee side and it is definitely not more selective than peer review. We’re only reviewing an abstract, usually under 100 words. Prob varies by field though. Maybe medical conferences are selective?
You can’t generalise about conferences any more than you can generalise about individual journals, or publishers, or peer review.
Lack of peer review is not a standalone criticism. The problems with this study are obvious and you do not need to rely on an imaginary peer reviewer to point them out.