I entertained the thought of how strange the article is, and yet I don't think I've ever felt that way about any of the innovations you're describing: in fact I may I'm probably a little too slavish in my trust of the direction our collective research infrastructure.

That isn't to say I disagree with you in general though. Given where and when I was born relative to the article's setting, it's a lot more understanding that my baseline would be faith in the long-term wisdom of scientific progress.