But experts are free to publish any findings or opinion pieces they want in my scenario.

And it’s irrelevant if they choose to research. They have the freedom to do so or the freedom to choose ignorance.

In your scenario we would have people at the tippy top choose the experts that are allowed to publish their opinions which would obviously conform to the few individuals bias.

We saw this at Twitter when legitimate sources were getting banned, even major news organizations during 2020 if they didn’t conform to the narratives