All metaphors are false. But, on restricting this discussion to natural sciences, we hope to use a particular metaphor to clarify important areas in physics and often in dispute by researchers -- also in other areas, including those not a natural science.
The metaphor is that, all one can do in natural sciences is to be a "customer service rep" for someone else's product -- nature.
For example, I did not invent it, and works for billions of years, without halting. I am just the front-end of nature's message, the customer service rep. One can always ask questions and consult the manual, the universe, in case of doubts.
Of course, natural scientists are much more. Some view that our task is to find in all the relative data from phenomena (which is all physics is limited to measure), the absolute, the universally valid, the invariant, that is hidden in them, as Max Planck said first.
But the metaphor above can be useful, especially in other areas, including those not a natural science.
Some "disgruntled customers" (DC), familiar to any well-intentioned customer service rep, remain disgruntled, even when explained that it is not a bug, such that the speed of light is constant to all inertial observers in vacuo, it is a feature of the universe. A feature, not a bug.
When a DC understands, the average DC does not say "thank you", it should be a selfless customer service, good for the soul.
There is also a tendency for a DC to all but hide in silence until all his false answers (in nature, which is the arbiter of falsehoods) are diluted. By RG, or hidden in life. Then, he likely goes back and says it is a new feature, the old bug, that he just invented, and is just "spreading around".
Or, a DC can also repeat a fallacious interpretation, say we never measured it otherwise but locally. Natural science can explain that the Earth moves, the Sun moves, across the galaxy, we launch transmitters beyond the Solar system, and we can see and measure electromagnetism, light, billions of years away, across many galaxies. Then, what is a DC to do?
The average DC understands, but there is always the probability that a DC will name another fallacious argument, ad infinitum if life would physically allow, to deny what could be simply explained, it is not a bug, the DC bug -- it is a supposed feature.
It is a good customer service of someone else's product, though, because there is, actually, no DC. The concept of a DC is a mirage, itself a bug.
Everyone counts, DC or not, in the school called life, and even non-cooperation clarifies, inspires selflessness, is cooperation. Everyone cooperates.
Cooperation is a collective effect, producing unexpected efects.
Even those who try their mortal hand and time in life to be contrarian, a DC, just like Humpty-Dumpty, using nursery rhymes as a scholarly principle, trying strategies to get points at RG, get into a cabal to dialogue and create hits in search.
All is a legitimate, defensible, good use of their limited time, in the school of life, even as if, so may seem to them, that there is no future to account for, to earn.
So, a good customer service should handle all cases, sometimes with silence -- The trust that all is fine, there is no disaster in the whole universe, no wars but progress, it is an open-ended universe in harmony with laws we ignore, but feel more and more in the few laws we already know, and find out.
Nature is in no danger by humans. Everything is already solved, we just have to find it.
To help, Nature has many good customer service reps, in what should be done as a selfless customer service, a good task for the soul. And anyone can always ask questions and consult the manual, the universe, in case of doubts.