The problem also works in reverse. Probably the biggest example is Plate Tectonics - this idea took decades longer to be accepted than it needed to because the

The problem also works in reverse. Probably the biggest example is Plate Tectonics - this idea took decades longer to be accepted than it needed to because the generation of expert geologists who were the gatekeepers for the journals refused to consider it seriously, and the guy who came up with the idea wasn't a geologist [0]. Scientists are just humans, after all. Subject to human flaws. And the scientific method works "in the end", not immediately. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_drift