I think this is accurate. Few businesses have the slack required to hire a speculative research division to delight and surprise the business with new capabilit

I think this is accurate. Few businesses have the slack required to hire a speculative research division to delight and surprise the business with new capabilities :) More typically DS will optimise . I think engagement bandits, recommendation systems and such are all examples of optimising rather than driving new capability , and to agree with you, generalist vs specialist is a straw man in this instance. After all someone at some point is going to make a business case for a DS team member and the vast majority of businesses don’t have the luxury of doing anything other than focusing on growth.