To be fair, it's actually difficult to compare real life scientific research and research in KSP. I don't think the moon rocks the Apollo guys brought back from the Moon (hard not to type Mun here) helped developed new rocket engines... Most of the science done in KSP would have absolutely no bearing on rocket development (sure, a launch success/failure brings very helpful data about rockets, but EVA reports in deep space? Not so much). To get it in line with real life science we would need to simulate science on Kerbin, in which actual science experiments would have little impact, at least not in the domains that would interest rocket engineers. Actual research would then just be time based, with boosts with each launch. I would personally love science like that, but that's more the scope of a mod IMO.