>I think experts get too deep into values that aren't practically valuable

This describes the majority of practices today. Individuals pushing their own values, selling it and hoping it sticks despite having zero evidence to back it up. Even most things 'proven' are fairly context-dependent.

The majority don't even bother making a simple cost-benefit analysis these days. As if any significant social change is just going to break even from moment one and staying 'we should do X because it will give us Y' is a good enough argument. It is crazy how casually some of them advocate for practices that won't break even in the span of a few years at best. That's a lifetime in the field of software development.