Doctors in Germany are heavily encouraged to produce a phd thesis during their education. The way that usually plays out: they struggle to do good science while laboring to complete a degree that essentially has them memorize an encyclopedia, and they're used by PIs and postdocs as lab monkeys or scientific errand-boys, helping to chase down someone else's obscure 2nd tier side-theory, all while earning the scorn of their academic colleagues for being pale imitations of actual scientists.