Opening a can of worms?
Since introduction of varroa mites (1987 in USA and 1989 in Canada) our beekeeping reality changed completely.
In order to overcome a new problem, people were trying all kinds of different things all over the continent.
Some of them looked like good ideas, even as a solution, at the time, but all of those were short lived, some were good for certain locations, but there was no an universal solution :'(
Then Al Gore pushed for the internet, and very soon screen bottom boards, small cell foundation, small bees, increased ventilation, and some other things started clogging information super highway
(trying to be humorous here)
Eventually some of the "gurus" admitted scientists were right quashing their solutions as "universal"
In my very limited experience, just going into my 5th spring as a beekeeper, I came to believe, the only thing that is going to help us, and our bees is improved genetics. Selecting for hygienic, low swarming, productive and tame bees. Is it hard? You betcha. But bees can do it, if we help a bit.
Just for the record, in my books, scientific doesn't necessary means an academic.