You hit the nail on the head dan. Kudos for this.
I wrote so many articles in the past about this backward thinking from academia and why I actually avoid to invest in anything that comes from the space. Indeed, the mentality of the academic space is to find something that fits the narrative.
Most experiments from the space are not falsifiable. Anything goes as long as others have created the shell upon which their assumptions can be based. This is why we see fields like psychology invent disorders at will and an entire medical industry being based on it.
Cardano will fall onto its face and probably find the same excuse as with academia. Extended timelines and waste of resources.