It's simple in models where you assume you understand the causal structure. Then whenever things get murky people tend to try to operate without clarifying the

It's simple in models where you assume you understand the causal structure. Then whenever things get murky people tend to try to operate without clarifying the causal structure and end up in a bind. Of course what you say is true, but executing it in practice and having a sufficiently rich language to identify confounders well is what's usually lacking.