Cleeds: "That doesn't mean that everything we've heard is illusion."
Couldn't pass this up! Maybe it is! We have all thought that at sometime in our life.
Seriously though the role of day-to day-variation in our "internal" and "external" environments, placebo effect etc. etc. seems so profound an influence to those of us who study such things. Acknowledging the contributions of such things might go along way in bridging the gap with the "I just trust my ears" (and) "we don't really know enough science to justify the physics arguments" folks.
Double Blind Studies: flawed, really hard to do right. But potential for validity in the science sense.
Trusting Your Ears: Fun, self re-enforcing, sense of agency. No validity in the reproducible science sense. But that doesn't make it stupid or bad, or better or worse. For a hobby.
I know it is not an original idea but sometimes the $10 glass of really good Zin is the most cost effective tweak of all.