But then I could make the same point about the vast majority of humanities academics. Most work isnt paradigm shifting, it's just building on top of currently a

But then I could make the same point about the vast majority of humanities academics. Most work isnt paradigm shifting, it's just building on top of currently accepted theories. And that's my actual point. When it comes to rejecting or accepting new models, there is much dogma in physics as there is in sociology, because the underlying problem is human beings not the subject of study. Even Einstein dogmatically said "God does not play dice", rejecting QM based on his intuition about how the universe works rather than being cold and only looking at observation. Personally, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with dogma, it helps your research become an overdamped system otherwise you'd be wasting all your time following ultimately fruitless leads. The important thing is to use this inherent quality of humans to your advantage.