Those papers you deride aren't what college professors mostly produce. What they should produce are citizens via the study of what great minds have thought in the past. The increasing narrowness of scholarship has destroyed the liberal arts.
Plus, you’ll have the added benefit of a chip on your shoulder wanting to prove you are as good as those colleagues that paid 200k.
Chips on shoulders put chips in pockets.
These type of studies are not meant for advancement, they are meant for reflection and sense making.