This effect is also known in the world of sailboat racing. A well-equipped racing yacht or dinghy has innumerable adjustments that can be made to the sail controls, the centerboard, and the operating method. Some adjustments are well known, while others cause interminable debate. The observation is that there is no argument about the ones that everybody knows work, so the argumentation is about things that can't be clearly shown to be beneficial. The conclusion is that they probably don't make any difference.

So the arguments get more and more energetic as you get further into areas where nobody actually knows anything. Which goes a long way towards explaining why religious wars are the worst.