> Just granting it at random or equally is probably very very far from optimal if it means that an exceptional PI cannot even do the things to push his/her rese

> Just granting it at random or equally is probably very very far from optimal if it means that an exceptional PI cannot even do the things to push his/her research to the next level. What does "far from optimal" mean? Let's pretend the allocators are not god-like decision makers (if they are, let's fire all the scientists because our god-like decision makers can do the research for them). Let's just accept that if we have a large bunch of diverse potential researchers, and limited funding, the best way to get a breakthrough is by funding a random sample of these researchers. Maybe this sample should be stratified, but it should not be stratified in such a way that it incentives chasing grants (effectively making the grant-allocators the real PIs - with all their flaws and biases systematically driving the process, but without any accountability or management effort on their behalf). We can't get optimal without unlimited wisdom, and if we had unlimited wisdom we wouldn't need scientists.