[mwexler]

That's a very fair point. I didn't mean to suggest that harm to the patients or subjects was not the overriding factor, nor that bio, pharma, and other medical fields never do RCTs.

But there are a slew of laws and requirements around _how_ to run an RCT across the world of bio-related work, esp as it becomes a product. From marketing to manufacture to packaging, there are strict limits around where variation is allowed, at least anything involving the FDA in the US. (Some would say too many regs, others say not enough).

And in those cases, having a wider collection of ways to impute cause would be great.

[rcthompson]

Yes, that's true, legal requirements definitely become much more of a factor the closer you get from research to product.