I also left a PhD in the field (albeit right at the very start of the PhD) but this was also my impression. I was shocked at how bad the state of the literatur

I also left a PhD in the field (albeit right at the very start of the PhD) but this was also my impression. I was shocked at how bad the state of the literature was with so many dubious papers, especially since the explosion of ML techniques. I came from a Physics background and there you could generally trust the literature was legit and not just smoke and mirrors to get published.