@solalnathan@academicchatter@phdstudents I wonder if it's all due to a lack of substantive understanding and expertise (or concern), at the level of decision-makers. "Top x% is excellent!", whether it's accepted papers or grants provided, is a totally substance-free metric. Any monkey can apply it and claim they're measuring exceptionality (just not what kind exactly).
To publish a paper if and only if it's "(a bit/very/extremely) valuable to a scientific field" requires much more judgment.