“This is a problem of human nature and institutional corruption that has nothing to do with the validity of the scientific method as Dr. Thorne implied.”
Except...
When the practitioners invalidate scientific method by refusing to hold to the practice in order to puff their own egos and finances, the method isn’t about actual science.
When they’re not practicing it, they aren’t practitioners, and obviously there isn’t a way to “invalidate” it by failing to use it.so.