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PhD here as well.

My advice is to learn as much as possible from experts who study their fields for a living while you have access to them.

What does you having a PhD have anything to do with everything else you said??

A PhD would imply first hand experience of academia. I don't think they're using it to signal any particular level of intelligence.

A PhD would likely be very familiar with academic publications.

A PhD would be very familiar with publications...in whatever field they studied. Which they notably omit. PhD's are not generalists.

Comp Eng PhD here. I even see bias in comp sci publications. No field is bias free.