[nonbel]

>"Honestly, I'd much rather have your actual code and data that you used to get your results than read through the research paper if I had to choose (assuming the paper is not pure theory) - but instead there is a disproportionate focus on paper quality over "project quality" at least IMHO."

I think at first new students know this wrong but then get dragged into the circular logic of:

  it is standard in the field -> it is ok -> it is standard in the field

It starts with just being so busy and confronted with so many new things that you just use the standard behavior as a "stand-in" (no pun intended) for a rational approach. Then you never have the time to go back and reassess that decision.