I have to be honest, I do not understand what you want to say with your comment.

My point is that outside of fields which can somehow make money through research, not much scientific progress is made outside of universities. I don't see how you address this.

Very legitimate question.

I address it with my whole life.

It would have taken my whole life if I had stayed and gotten my PhD anyway, so why not?

People can't expect dramatically different approaches to research to do anything but make it difficult for deep understanding between them.

You really have to have an open mind.

I see raw scientific progress that many outside of instiutions do not recognize, because so many brilliant experimentalists do not have institutional credentials.

So I had a head start and took advantage of it, kept giving chemistry lessons to colleagues as they went through graduate school.

Even invented something really cool in one of their labs when I wasn't even a student any more.

Naturally I have the greatest respect for PhDs in general because that in itself is a major achievement.

But I wouldn't have gotten this far in such a non-industrial environment, core industriousness might just be a differentiation factor.

It took a long time but eventually I came to the point where I just do science every day because I'm a scientist, and make money as a byproduct of what I do.

No different than a university lab where 90% - 99% of your experiments will never pay off, if you can't handle it under a variety of financial and/or institutional situations you might need to look at reasons why like I did.

Plus with a lifetime of more intense experimentation than if I had a PhD (really do not compare myself to others) I've got zillions of financial opportunities with chemicals in particular. The most important thing turned out to be curtailing the desire to make as much money as possible, most of this stuff is toxic.

Any kind of treadmill could have led to a much worse outcome.