This used to be the case: research was conducted mostly at academic institutions that did not provide degrees [1]. The "research university" is a relatively new thing
[1] https://asteriskmag.com/issues/10/the-origin-of-the-research...
[1] https://asteriskmag.com/issues/10/the-origin-of-the-research...
Nowadays, promotions of professors for different levels (Assistant, Associate, Professor) is solely dependent on number of papers they are publishing in Q1 journals. But the research maybe entirely bogus, same ideas repurposed hundreds of times by different professors.
The entire concept about "systematic knowledge" has gone downhill.