[montalbano]

I believe this quote from J.B.S. Haldane is relevant here:

I suppose the process of acceptance will pass through the usual four stages:

(i) This is worthless nonsense;

(ii) This is an interesting, but perverse, point of view;

(iii) This is true, but quite unimportant;

(iv) I always said so

[akiselev]

It's actually pretty impressive when a scientist goes through the full cycle, especially if they're already at the top of their field. Usually, they never make it past (ii) hence the Planck principle: "science advances one funeral at a time" (see The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Kuhn)