Great article and I tend to agree that scientific references don't mean much these days anymore, hence, why use them? I especially see this as a problem when it comes down to health. Vegans vs meat-eaters, pro soy people vs anti soy people etc. Both sides have equally amounts of scientific references and both make sense most of the time (in some cases they twisted their studies to get the wanted result and a lay person can see that)
Great article that tackles a very problematic issue nowadays.
Indeed, the research is abused so much it makes no sense to use it to many any public claim.