The summary on Wikipedia doesn't sound very testable. Maybe the original sources are clearer? In any case, I bet the hypothesis could be tightened up if one specified what one means by scientific progress. Perhaps some blend of: (1) data collection; (2) hypotheses generation; (3) hypotheses testing; (4) communicating results; (5) teaching; (6) inspiring others to do science; (7) cross pollination of ideas; (8) building the scientific community; (9) fundraising for science? Something else? A dedicated team could suggest a metric and test the hypothesis.