Yeah, but it's more than just getting the natural laws out and beating people over the head with them -- there's emotional involvement from the public, and that's terrific.
For instance, there are quite a few hobbyests that are building their own rigs. There's discussion about noise control, radiation leakage, resonance, and so forth.
For the more theory-minded, there's a great discussion about empirical data versus theory, which you allude to. At the end of the day, of course, if you've got data, you've got data. Once the errors are taken out of the system, observation beats theory hands-down.
I know scientists would probably much rather have a conversation around "This is science, dang it, go read a book!" but for us layman schmucks, the really cool part is a conversation around "This is why science is what it is"
(Note: I'm not addressing you directly. I've just noticed a lot of mockery and impatience from some of the scientific community, and that's a shame. Better to use this as a teaching moment in my opinion)
