It is of course more exciting to be working on revolutionary science than normal science—but I wonder if normal science seems worse than it needs to be just bec

It is of course more exciting to be working on revolutionary science than normal science—but I wonder if normal science seems worse than it needs to be just because it's more susceptible to a kind of bureaucratic watering down—e.g. like pushing participants to sacrifice quality in their work for publishability, as you mention.