[AussieWog93]

Just based on my experience in academia, there are probably plenty of people with good hunches about where to go next. Unfortunately, the system (grants system especially) is actively discouraging them from trying anything too new that would undermine the status of the incumbent experts.

If you banned every single influential scientist who hasn't contributed a major discovery in the last 10 years from participating in academia, we'd have colonised the galaxy decades ago.