From the reference digging to the experimental bench to the data analysis, you make way more progress when you are working on what you really want to.

For those whose true interests lie squarely where today's academia is going, it would be hard to beat such a large well-ensconced system.[0]

But there still might not be enough research opportunities to go around, it seems like the odds of a young scientist ending up building a life's work are lower than ever, even in a well-supported field.

So it's not only those far from the mainstream who could benefit from an alternative.

And these are two different groups.

It would be really good if traditional scientific institutions could be about doubled in number by adding freshly-built ones which couldn't help but have some 21st century foundations to grow from. In a somewhat predictable way.

While at the same time completely dissimilar alternatives equal in number, almost like a safety net for the gifted who fall through the remaining cracks in the academic system, or who never manage to crawl up through those same cracks against the current to begin with.

So you can get more breakthroughs in unpredictable ways.

And get things that people really want because when that's the motivating factor you get more, and you get more for your money.

[0] It may be hard to beat now but that doen't mean it might not be better accomplished in the long run. The harder things like this are, the sooner you need to get started, like decades ago. So I already admire the New Science operators.