I hear what you are yearning for - I remember trying to convince my supervisor that researchers need to look towards github for progress.
His response stuck with me: While scientific research is continuous and never complete, the whole point of publication is that it is a record in a fixed point in time. The results and discussion cannot be altered, or reused: it is a milestone, a historical record of a novel contribution to knowledge. Sure, you might reanalyse your data, rework an image with new parameters what have you, but the nature of sharing your work with your scientific community requires it to be static.
