IMO it makes more sense if the humans in Star Trek are unreliable narrators.

How is it possible that a teenage mechanic can improve engine efficiency by 5% messing around in his spare time? Why didn't the engineers whose full time job it is to build the engines figure that out?

In fact, cosmic radiation in space drives all humans insane. They truly believe they're doing science experiments, but stuff goes wrong because they're just jamming random household items into the engine.