You are missing my main point. Physics education tends to exclude fluid dynamics, so of course you wouldn't hear much about it or do research in it if you only

You are missing my main point. Physics education tends to exclude fluid dynamics, so of course you wouldn't hear much about it or do research in it if you only have physics degrees. If a physics degree were about physics as defined in the dictionary, fluid dynamics would be more prominent. But "physics" as studied in a "physics" department is much more narrow than the dictionary definition. Fluid phenomena is ubiquitous. You live in a fluid. You probably drive a car through a fluid and may occasionally take a plane through a fluid at higher speed. You surely use plumbing. I don't see how you can claim that fluid dynamics is not valuable given that. It's a lot more relevant to most people than quantum mechanics.