It is my impression (and it may be wrong) while reading old Nature volumes that research a few decades ago has been done inter alia or inter pares. In contrast, competition is now being much more favored by research politicians and scientists as well. “Winning ugly” – the title of a tennis book – is getting more and more acceptable, although empirical research clearly shows the disadvantage of this strategy.
Lars Bremer has an interview with Matthias Feist the famous programmer of chess programmer: “My hand shivered when Fritz played Dxd8…” There is nothing against fair competition and winning any prize may be beautyful. Winning ugly, however, remains ugly, yea, yea.