It's not a "crazy worry" but defendants in civil suits have all kinds of worries. Regarding impugning Stanford researchers (N.b. no scare quotes) as being motivated by a consulting fee, that's what those fees are for: to get the best possible expert witnesses.

I don't begrudge a good defense attempting to block a litigant's experts, either. However, everyone is better off for expert witnesses being motivated by fees to provide the best expert testimony. If there was something untoward about their motivation, it would be Stanford's problem.