You don't have to use tidy verse. I never reached for it since base R does it all already. I write in a functional approach though and I understand a lot of pythonistas and others prefer the object oriented approach. R written in a function approach is lean and mean. Use your apply functions, kids.

I think saying academic code is algorithm centric is perhaps missing the larger userbase of academic code: not people writing the functions and vetting on simulated data, but the people actually using the functions on real world data.

This is why there is a seemingly uncaring attitude towards typical programming conventions. They do not matter. The code is pretty much a one off for the given analysis. It doesn't matter if it takes an hour to run or two weeks on the cluster. You are chasing the wrong dragon when you try and make your two week run time into something sensible. Spending effort on process for process sake and not the hypothesis building, discovery, and analysis.

It is a different planet than the world of professional CS where it is really about process and saving time and money, and results that aren't highly convenient to the bottom line are largely ignored. There is no bottom line to satisfy with research compute, only reporting what the evidence suggests and publishing this information.