I agree. I would also recommend Daniel Naroditsky's speed run video series. He starts with new account and explains his ideas and thoughts as he progress to higher and higher elo.
" Why engage with someone when you can just discredit them for not providing a link to a study with a title and abstract that you won't actually use to re-evaluate your own position?"
You are right, however when people are parroting their "opinions and own researches" on some more important topics like Covid-19 I guess you should not engage with someone without any source.