[mjburgess]

Physics has used "empirical/phenomenological models" where curve-fitting to data has served to preclude the need for simulation, or if it's computationally intractable, etc. I'd agree that it had been underused, since I'd say such modelling is held somewhat in contempt as giving up on doing physics.

Do you have a paper that discusses any of this work in these terms? I'm presently writing a larger survey on XAI towards a theory-informed approach, and it seems these mixed models might have some novel explanatory upside/needs. At the moment i'm inclined to partition the world into theory-based and theory-free.