> Only when someone goes against the "scientific consensus" does any progress get made in any field.

That's a fundamental misunderstanding of Kuhn's model.

Progress gets made when scientists do normal science within the prevailing paradigm. That's the activity that turns fancy theories into something useful. Over time, scientists encounter issues that cannot be resolved within the paradigm. When a paradigm shift occurs, science takes many steps backwards and several steps sideways to deal with such issues.