You've missed the point: getting along with your peers is the most important thing. What is truth?
> getting along with your peers is the most important thing
No it isn't, hence the yuk. Anyone who thinks getting along with your peers is more important than getting the science right, isn't someone I trust doing science. The most important thing is getting the science right, full stop, end of story.
If he'd needed access to impossibly expensive equipment available only in a few palaces around Europe, politics might have stopped him before he ever got started.
Science is about being right; not about getting along with your peers.