Thank you, B&S, for the sporting response.
(I see you caught I used the word "different" not "better")
I submitted my original post in this string in part because I've always been surprised that more pilots are not involved in the R&D side of things. But then I got to thinking, there's not really a "research" track for flight crew, at least while actively flying. It seems to me a squandering of an incredible subject matter expert/knowledge pool.