I can confirm this way of worling with data from my time at Amazon operations. We used data all the time, everywhere and for everything. But we did not have data scientist in our time, we did it ourselves. Quite peculiar, but so damn effecient and effective. I kind of miss that. It also showed that most of the data analytics stuff I know, Six Sigma, is just plain overkill for a lot of practical applications.

My favorite example is the WW2 bomber diagram shown to illustrate survivorship bias. Sure, working from data and first principle one could identify the vulnerable spots of the bomber. Or one could asl the designers or have an engineer, heck even a contemporary field mechanic, take a look at the actual drawings of the plane. And reach the same conclusion, faster, with a ton of additional insight and improvement ideas that can actually be implemented...