So Leonardo da Vinci, Michael Faraday, Gregor Mendel, Thomas Edison, Jane Goodall, Mary Anning, Benjamin Franklin, William and Caroline Herschel are not "real scientists" because they were self-taught rather than formally trained, yet this is "real science" because someone signed off on it?

That is not true according to the actual history of science. Pure vanity and egoism. Substance is what matters most, not labels. Some are more concerned with their pride than pushing the boundaries of human knowledge.

This is especially true in regards to trends in science. Go and do a database search for papers recently published on the subject of artificial intelligence and you will find a great deal of nonsense that does not even touch the mathematical fundamentals and simply exists to justify a credential or a job.