I hear you. Didn’t really know there was such a pushback.

Just to add to what you’ve said, specifically about how scientists also do their own research … scientists do a lot more than “their own research” (which in this case is reading the literature out there of others’ findings and thoughts).

These include:

• perform their own experiments to test their own ideas and prove them correct.
• attend conferences of many scientists where ideas and findings are presented to everyone and open to comment/critique from everyone
• communicate their thoughts or findings only once it has passed quality checks from reviewers and editors
• have their whole career motivation based on getting published (through the above checks), discovering the actual truth and convincing the world of that truth.
• generally treat all findings and thoughts with scepticism but with a view for finding the flaw and using that to disprove the finding or prove something new and better.
• culturally value (to a fault) being intelligent, insightful and understanding as much as possible including an opponent’s findings and arguments.

Ie, science is very much about the stuff other than “doing your own research/reading” and that stuff, which is all dedicated to getting to the truth of matters, is arguably what makes good science go.