And pilot programs are to a great extent research.

Let’s do this thing and see what happens in a small enough setting that we can intervene if something really goes off the rails and even if it does the impact is minimal.

Right. Social systems and the effects various interventions have are very complicated. The idea that some intervention is proven or disproven is, in all but the simplest cases, ridiculous.

Even with research, the results are going to be hard to understand and apply without unintended consequences, and whatever intervention is going to have mixed results even if the overall effect is positive.