Not looking to enter the larger food fight, just wanted to mention in my 20+ years in research at a fortune 500 company I have seen many intellectually dishonest scientists. Not many would admit to it of course. Quite common for them to put their thumb on the scale to make the idea they were proposing look more promising(and therefore more likely to receive funding).
Also saw similar behavior from my advisor while obtaining my MS degree.
Doesn't mean it happens everywhere but in my experience it has not been rare.