>The house is run by an organization that has a very vested interest in playing up the supernatural element of the house.

Sure, but we're dealing in oral-folklore that's over a century old here. I don't see any reason to value the earthquake-theory over the ghost-trap theory.

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Except, of course, that modern academia is opposed to accepting, or investigating, anything paranormal (see Wikipedia etc).

I first visited the Winchester house in 1985, as a child, and it sure felt ghost infested to me back then. You can't get more scientific than that. My sister (also a child at the time) peer-reviewed my findings.

Wikipedia agrees with you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_Mystery_House#Labyr...