@michael_nielsen Thanks for writing up these notes, Michael!

Speculating a bit further, I think it's sometimes the case that vision papers are playing a defensive role in some sense.

@michael_nielsen I've been involved in three papers one might categorize as "vision papers" (albeit of uncertain success). In each case, the paper was in some sense a rebuttal to others saying the work wasn't valuable or was illegitimate in some sense.

@michael_nielsen In many environments, even if you have significant research freedom, if you're doing something unusual, you will have colleagues who push against that work. Eventually one writes something trying to push back.

@michael_nielsen That makes them very strange documents in retrospect!

Important parts of their value include (1) being a pep talk for the group trying to do the kind of work; (2) creating common knowledge that some people think it's legitimate; (3) highlighting potential; ...

@michael_nielsen Put another way -- a small group may have a research vision they are (rightly or wrongly) excited about before they can really justify it in research results to the broader community. Writing up that vision has important social functions for that group.