> If the model is doing meaningful research that moves along the state of the ecosystem, then we are in the outer loop of self improvement.

That's a lot of vague language. I don't really see any way to respond. I suppose I can say this much: the usefulness of a tool is not proof of the correctness of the predictions we make about it.

> And yes it will progress because thats the nature of it doing meaningful work.

This is a non sequitur. It makes no sense.

And I never said there's anything bad about or wrong with statistical models.