I see an parallel(possibly tenuous) in the subculture of martial arts. The "mundane" stuff like boxing, High School and Collegiate wrestling, judo, Thai kickboxing etc. actually works but lacks any pretensions toward 'mystical' aspects or secret/underground/killer whatever. Effectively, the more an art is associated with streetfighting/ninjas/commandos the crappier it typically is, ceteris parabus.

To me, this seems to be a domain specific example of the overarching phenomena discussed here. Science is too 'common' to possibly be worth studying as sports are too conventional/normal/western to be effective; so many people seem to think at least.

This example breaks down somewhat in one respect I can think of: science offers the possibility of power for the individual similar to fictional magic assuming we create nanotechnology, human genetic manipulation, human level AI etc. whereas all martial arts offer is a significant advantage in an unarmed fight against one other human. However, I think combat sports are fun and interesting just as I think science and empirical thinking is fun, engrossing and fruitful.

Great post E.Y.