Putting aside the verisimilitude of scientists' claims of a "real world" out there, I want to see evidence of a return on investment - deliverables, cashflow, jobs created. We have been far too forgiving of scientists claiming things didn't work out as planned, or the thing they tried to prove was wrong.
We need guarantees. The success of Thomas Kinkade in the art world has shown that business models can readily be applied to human pursuits: X number of breakthroughs per day, Y number of articles per week, Z units of science, etc. Can the work be done cheaper by Chinese students? Yes. These are metrics that decision-makers want.
If the expensive new machine cannot answer basic questions asked of it, such as what is the meaning of the universe, when answersingenesis.org has this information freely downloadable online, then we need to ask hard questions about the future of science. As Davi et al (2021) note in their article
How has neoliberalism weakened science? "competition for access to project funding has ... favored a ‘society of the spectacle’ in the scientific field".
Let's pause momentarily to look at a spectacular image from the JWST:
"We have entered the era of science promises made to funders, promises that are often not kept, resulting in lay society disillusionment. ... Public opinions in OCDE countries are increasingly suspicious about scientific discourses on sensitive issues such as vaccines, the reliability of medical treatments or climate change. ... During the Covid-19 crisis, preprints, sometimes of very poor quality, have been widely disseminated by the general press and considered as valid information."
I will pray for the scientists. There is hope that they can be reined in from their disagreeable, wayward, non-conformist ways and deliver quality products as they have in the past - velcro, the ballpoint pen, 8k monitors, "5G", and many others.