From another point of view, VLK’s example actually reinforces this view. Constructing a catalog is an example of Weinberg’s “what you are going to use them for.” I think there are two broad classes of common uses: (a) generic, where as VLK emphasizes the creator of the method has limited knowledge of what the “user” is after, and (b) special purpose applications, where this is not so much of a problem. A Bayesian might use a non-informative prior in (a) but a specific prior based on actual knowledge and previous experience in (b).

Of course, it is still immensely fun and useful to sometimes indulge in flights of abstract fancy, without even necessarily filing a flight plan ahead of time.