Exactly. In other words, there is a huge difference between science as "pursuit of knowledge through thoroughly applied scientific method" and science as "product of academic process".
Incentive structures make sure that the latter is dominant in published science.
Even if there was no intentional fudging of data, results and interpretations by scientist teams, the results of science as a whole could still be heavily (over time) influenced by simple biases in selection of grant applications. For example if you only fund researches of type "thing X good" and dismiss all applications trying to prove "thing X bad", you will eventually gather enough evidence for X to appear good, regardless of how objectively "good" it is.
Incentive structures make sure that the latter is dominant in published science.
Even if there was no intentional fudging of data, results and interpretations by scientist teams, the results of science as a whole could still be heavily (over time) influenced by simple biases in selection of grant applications. For example if you only fund researches of type "thing X good" and dismiss all applications trying to prove "thing X bad", you will eventually gather enough evidence for X to appear good, regardless of how objectively "good" it is.