Such reductionist analyses are reliably blind to the complexity of being embodied in physical reality.
I know the kind you mean though, reducing external factors(like air), so you can isolate gravity as a force unrelated to density by finding out in a vacuum a feather and a metal ball fall with the same speed.
(As for the paper I have not yet made up my mind.)
Reductionism is setting everything but one thing aside and trying to figure out that one thing. Bringing in the second thing in only after you fail and trying again.