Wang Zhifang had dedicated his life to the development of alloy materials and quickly pinpointed the issue in Zhao Yi's words.
In the research and development of alloy materials, theory indeed accounts for a very small part, and the chance of producing direct results from a perfect argument is also very slim, but it's still much better than an argument with many inexplicable issues.
For instance, an argument that makes sense in every way might increase the likelihood of enhancing product performance by ten percent.
An argument with many unexplainable problems, perhaps, would only have a one percent chance of improving the final product's performance.
The difference lies here.
'Trial and error' is hard to define.
Every experimental design argument consists of several steps, and if the final product's performance isn't enhanced, it's hard to say which step caused the issue.