Not directly tied to GP's complaints but another thing that often comes up are people complaining about the frivolity of the research without understanding how

Not directly tied to GP's complaints but another thing that often comes up are people complaining about the frivolity of the research without understanding how basic science works. "Can you believe we're paying money to understand fruit fly mating behavior!?!", well yes, because fruit flies are model organisms and developing an understanding of these very mundane sounding things are important before being able to make broader hypotheses