Excessive use of inline citations negatively impacts readability. (Warner, 2004) Several reader surveys have reported feelings of confusion, irritation, and distraction while reading citation-dense text. (Piryi et al. 2013, Somerson 1991, Klokov & Mendelssohn 2020) A 2019 meta-analysis by Berg also found that author preferences for heavy citation correlated strongly with verbosity and imposter syndrome (Berg 2019a), …
There will always be room in literature for pure empiricism: for writers who boldly assert that they have, through force of sight and prose alone, seen the universe in its truest light and record it now in ink.
Notice, also, how one feels to read these authors: one leaves with perhaps less knowledge, but certainly more learning. To peruse a confident work is to know the author's mind - not some bastard coalescence of previous literature, brought together solely to identify a pinprick ‘gap’ that (supposedly) justifies a thesis.
Do I disparage research? No! But I do lament a fear to trust one's mind that is as equally damaging as to trust it blindly, and condemn the subtle gaslighting of academia to convince young students that original thought is but a pittance; that it must be timid and incremental, that it rarely has been other, that all great men stand on the shoulders of giants.
Any man may stand alone. Occasionally, he must. And if the courage to do so is driven out of academia, then its thinking shall necessarily be done by cowards.