I will not fuck with something unless I know for myself it will work.
How then do you innovate, learn to improvise? And no I'm not suggesting someone totally new go weld the battery contacts in a mech mod or anything like that. What I am suggesting is there's often small things you can alter here and there to get something working or fit just for yourself. How can you know if it'll work unless you try it and find out?
I understand your point though. I'm just kind of seeing it as being stuck. I know for example that a penny held up in the fusebox on the driver's side of a 1979 Datsun B can get you another twenty miles, when you don't have the proper fuse on hand. If not for trail and error, we were stuck.
How far would amoeba have got if they tried, got nowhere, threw up their cell and said "well not trying anything else because I don't know if it'll work"? Of course, yes I know amoeba lack brains, vocal chords. My point remains though, they survived because of trail and error.