>>29272131Most researchers in any field never publish papers of actual consequence, hell most barely publish anything at all each year.
The reality is that science is now supported by midwits and progress happens because of derivative, incremental research, partly because actual genius is so rare.
Having an army of midwits works, look at the rapid technological progress over the past 200 years, downside is that some of the midwits may fake their research for recognition.
For example the recent revelation in Alzheimer's research revealing one of the biggest frauds in modern medicine, two people literally faked research for the amyloid plaque model which is what modern Alzheimer's treatment is based on and the discovery completely upended over 15 years of assumptions.
