[Serious] Generally speaking, is philosophy a worthwhile subject of study?

[Belacqua]

Polymath has a point in that there is a descriptive element to Popper's work.

Are you sure he was being descriptive on this point? Falsification isn't an intuitive idea. And modern science is still not set up this way—you're insensitivised to discover something new not falsify something old.

[incentivized?]

I wonder if what Popper says should be thought of more like a recommendation -- how science would work best, or how it would work if it were behaving properly.

I'm no scientist, but I've read criticism from scientists about how research actually happens these days. Nearly all of it is sponsored by the Pentagon or for-profit corporations, which have their thumbs on the scale of what the results will be. Researchers are often employed on a publish-or-perish basis, which motivates them to do research that is more likely to get published in the journals, which are also for-profit and prefer to publish the more sexy results. 

Some say this has led to a crisis of reproducibility, with not enough people willing to do the unglamorous work of falsification.