If nothing had been seen, the implications would have been spectacular.

Experiments worth doing are worth doing no matter the result.

The implications aren't automatically "there's nothing out there", more "this was the wrong tool for the job".

True, but I doubt that anyone would have gambled that much Hubble time without working out the statistical sensitivity of the measurement.

Right, I suspect that there was much more behind Bob's deep field study than TFA presents.

More importantly, could he have done the same thing in today’s world and political realities that he did then?

While I agree with you about PR and reputation (sadly), it would be valuable for scientists as a Null value. I would put it on the same level as the Aether experiments.

Yes the point I tried to make was explicitly about the political aspects. I agree that from a scientific point of view, the null value is almost as valuable as what we got now.