[chakademus]

As a counterpoint: what about the efficacy of condensed matter physics informing developments in quantum field theory?

Of course analog systems must be treated carefully, but I think we shouldn't rush to do away with the practice entirely. Naturally, we do want to study black holes directly (with experiments like LIGO, LISA, etc.), but this is very expensive, difficult, and time consuming. If a small lab wants to try out some gravitationally analogous system, why not?