I’d look for a more complicated and nuanced explanation than that. Maybe, there are perverse incentives in scientific publishing (ever heard of publish or perish?), and insufficient checks and balances, and it’s hard to do the right thing and easy to do the wrong thing.

The more nuanced explanation gives you more traction for incremental improvement. One historically easy way to get people to do the right thing is to make the right thing easier.

People used to dump their used motor oil in the nearest stream. Now every auto shop is required to accept used motor oil and recycle it. Doing the right thing is so easy that you’d have to be crazy to do the wrong thing.