[dmichulke]

My personal experience is similar because I know quite a few people in social sciences.

Conceptually, this is similar to rats pulling a lever or monkeys being reinforced to type the right characters. It also explains p-hacking and many other problems of interpretation.

Now one question I always have is - if you consider R just a tool - what is the difference between things I should fully understand (R?) and things I should only know how to use (e.g., my cell phone)?

How can I justify saying that people should understand R while I myself don't understand quite a few aspects of my cell phone?