This sounds like a very good way to get stuck at a local optimum because everyone is trying to get the next 2% improvement instead of heading for the global optimum which might require backtracking.

Economics for example, isn't lacking Keynes style geniuses, it is lacking pluralism. People are calcified in their stances and teachings and even Keynes said that there is not a lack of new ideas but the opposite, the problem is getting rid of the old ones.