Then the question should've been "is it ok to perform experiments on uninformed participants" or "would it have been ok if they splashed water instead". The do

Then the question should've been "is it ok to perform experiments on uninformed participants" or "would it have been ok if they splashed water instead". The doesn't try to explicitly link their question to the article and instead its prose is a hypothetical. Instead, the guy ask if its ok to splash water. I can't think of any reason why splashing water would be the line at which its no longer ok to have an experiment. I certainly can see uninformedness being a reason not to have an experiment but that's a different question and so it would get a different answer.