I somewhat agree, but my skeptical counter-argument would be this: You're assuming that the establishment is looking at reality. The cranks would contend that

I somewhat agree, but my skeptical counter-argument would be this: You're assuming that the establishment is looking at reality. The cranks would contend that the establishment is itself deeply ideologically biased and is not looking at reality. This is probably true to an extent. The question is to what extent. I'm sure it varies by discipline and of course by establishment (there are more than one). I think the proof is in the result. Ultimately I judge the success of a scientific field of endeavor by the engineerability of its findings. If a set of scientific ideas can be used to build something (in whatever sense that applies) then they almost certainly have some validity.