[joe_the_user]

Yeah, it seems like those bullet point have the problem that they don't really contain actionable information.

Here's the way I'd put things - correlation by itself does causation at all. You need correlation plus a plausible model of the world to have a chance.

Now science, at its best, involves building up these plausible models, so a scientist creates an extra little piece of the puzzle and has to be careful also the piece is a plausible fit.

The problem you hit is that the ruthless sink-or-swim atmosphere, previous bad science and fields that have little merit make it easy to be in the "just correlation" category. And whether you're doing a p test or something else doesn't matter.

A way to put is that a scientist has to care about the truth in order to put together all the pieces of models and data in their field.

So the problem is ultimately institutional.