That's just not true. We are probing a novel domain.
In fact how else would you expect this to proceed? We've discovered a new phenomenon, which likely requires novel mathematics, yet through this exact kind of experimentation we are building the intuition that will guide more rigorous formalization later.
Sure, I get it, the quality on arxiv isn't the same as some physics journal; but to dismiss this as unscientific is not only wrong but very much unfair. I'm working the cutting edge at work, and we're documenting our discoveries as we map the structure of a new frontier - if that isn't science, I don't know what is.
tldr this is how science progresses in new domains before novel mathematics and formalisms are developed to address the new class of problems. This is a really exciting time if neural nets don't hit any serious blocks.
Edit: and by the way, my coworkers are all graduated educated scientists from various backgrounds. What else are they doing if not science?