sure but there are huge downstream costs. tenure lowers salaries in the short term, but in the long term, you get stuck with unproductive employees, flexibility goes way down, researchers aren't incentivized to care about taxpayer needs, and you select for risk aversion rather than innovation
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ROI is the worst way to make progress. It puts the decision making in the hands of people who don't understand the science.
Tenure also allows for high risk, high reward inquiries and long-term projects. Both are good for science and, ultimately, taxpayers.