Someone has to pay for all this. That someone is most often not a scientist themselves. They don't have a that vague intuitive research taste that scientists have. Beyond fairly trivial levels of technical correctness, the value of research lies in its narrative implications, its interestingness, its surprise factor etc. These are not objective and are often more about aesthetics and taste than popularly understood. Why does the research matter? To whom does it matter? Are those people important? Do they control resources?