[gaurav_v]

You are of course correct. Unfortunately, the OPs suggestion that 'big data' is changing science has become the common belief in many fields, particularly the most prestigious. Several groups now operate under the protocol: collect big datasets first; spin a scientific story second. These fields often focus on and reward ever increasingly fancy (and expensive) methods to collect more data at 'better' resolution, with respect to some metric.

The hypothesis is often a forgotten tool.