Interesting essay. I read it months ago and am just going off my memory here.
My main problem with patronage is that those who would succeed under it would tend to do "sexier" research and also be better at sales. My own research (turbulent sprays at present) is decidedly not sexy and I can't say I'm particularly good at sales. The status-quo (grants mostly from the government) does have the same problems to a certain extent, but I believe these problems would be amplified under patronage because non-technical folks (who are providing the funding) may not understand the technical justifications for certain lines of research. At least under the status quo grant proposals are reviewed by people who are nominally familiar with the subject of the proposal, though perhaps less so than they should be, and they are under time pressure as well.
For this reason I don't think patronage can be more than a part of a proposed new "research enterprise". I'd be happy to see movement in that direction, still.
(And if anyone wants to fund theoretical work in sprays, feel free to contact me! See my profile for a link to my contact information. :-)
My main problem with patronage is that those who would succeed under it would tend to do "sexier" research and also be better at sales. My own research (turbulent sprays at present) is decidedly not sexy and I can't say I'm particularly good at sales. The status-quo (grants mostly from the government) does have the same problems to a certain extent, but I believe these problems would be amplified under patronage because non-technical folks (who are providing the funding) may not understand the technical justifications for certain lines of research. At least under the status quo grant proposals are reviewed by people who are nominally familiar with the subject of the proposal, though perhaps less so than they should be, and they are under time pressure as well.
This Norbert Wiener book goes into detail about the problem of those with funding knowing less than those who need funding: https://www.worldcat.org/title/invention-the-care-and-feedin...
For this reason I don't think patronage can be more than a part of a proposed new "research enterprise". I'd be happy to see movement in that direction, still.
(And if anyone wants to fund theoretical work in sprays, feel free to contact me! See my profile for a link to my contact information. :-)