I'm with you to a very good extent, but there are so many more promising individuals that universities just haven't had enough room for the vast majority, for quite some time.

We are all lucky that universities will still pay for advanced math progress like you have cited.

Especially math, I stuck with that pretty good before I was allowed to touch chemicals.

One of the real advantages is that all you need is a blackboard and chalk, the progress you can make is quite a bit compared to so many other things.

As an outsider I observe the lucky ones to be the few that the universities are willing to pay. I think it would be better if there were more openings and better pay too.

I know what you mean, but nobody has paid me to do research since 1982 when I was working for a commercial research startup.

That's just what I do, and never wanted to stop.

I needed to be able to pursue whatever was within reach, knowing that almost none of it was going to be interesting to anybody else, financially viable or even worth money at all. Otherwise I would have actually stayed at the university.

My most valuable milestones may be in electronics anyway where I have no university training. Had a whole lot earlier start there though.

After a lifetime as an outlier, the consistent observation is that most of the institutional systems screen out more raw talent than they employ.

I may seem extreme but it's good for somebody to strongly represent viable alternatives for that talent so maybe there will be more alternatives someday.

I have always thought that universities should expand to encompass more of what they are doing right too, but I wasn't going to hold my breath :)