It's more than that. Not just big corps but sometimes prominent scientists, or political movements have agendas and biases that influence research (studies related to racism, sexism, and diversity/equity come to mind). There are also research "cabals" that won't let you publish research contrary to the groupthink. And on top of all that there is a "reproducibility crisis" that especially impacts social science/medicine.
> and when in doubt, lean towards individual freedom over society's view of something.
I think this is the right stance. Too many people (in my opinion) cherry pick papers on topics that do not have a "preponderance of evidence" (or have even been reproduced a single time) in order to fight for policy changes or otherwise bolster their stance.
And when there are interest groups pumping money into research to ensure the thing does not harm others in a provable way?
It's like cigarettes in the 40s. Tobacco usage was both moral and socially acceptable because big tobacco pumped money into the research to ensure the perception was that it did not cause harm.
That was eventually disproven, but it took decades, and we no doubt have modern day "big tobaccos" pumping money into research to ensure their product/ideology/etc. is "proven" not to cause harm. You may think something is moral now but will change your mind later. For example, you may think it's perfectly fine for a person to attend church today, but what if research comes out later that religion provably harms children, would you then be on board with banning religion? And if so, doesn't that disturb you that a slightly different society might come to an equally "proven" conclusion that atheism provably causes harm to society?