[xyzzyx]

While some forms of comparative advantage might occur in the real world, Ricardo's theory, like so much of economics, abstracts away fundamental facts about the financial and biophysical aspects of development to such an extent that I do not see it as a useful tool of economic analysis. See for instance:

https://www.brookings.edu/research/diversification-or-specia...

https://atlas.cid.harvard.edu

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2017/08/ricardos-vice-vir...

This in general seems like a good reason for realism over empiricism within economics, many toy theories such as Ricardian comparative advantage can be used to interpret real world data and be assigned scientific credibility in the process, you have to open up the black boxes at all levels of aggregation to get beyond that.