I don't think we should discourage people from having a pet hypothesis if they're open about it. I seriously doubt that in academia most don't have their own pet hypothesis. I think the problem is when persons aren't open about whatever being their pet hypothesis and or even deliberately going out of bounds on what's acceptable based on their own pet hypothesis. As I said to another person that replied to me, you can google "fungi and Alzheimer's " to easily see the research in great detail. Maybe even visiting researchgate and doing the same. Also thanks for replying because I do have family members that have it.