Good Papers and Elite Journals

Aleks writes:

Most of the good papers I have read in the past few years weren't published in an elite journal: I have read drafts, circulations, web pages. And most of the time I spent reading elite journals was a waste of time.

In his comment, Aleks is referring to statistical journals. Does anyone have any thoughts on this for economic journals?

It brings up an interesting thought:

In order to publish in an elite journal, your ideas can't be too far out of the mainstream. In order to have a truly breakthrough idea, your idea has to be outside the mainstream.

If this is correct, doesn't this mean the best papers will tend to be found outside of the elite journals?