Despite what seems to be our basic agreement, I must take Opie to task a little for his use of sources. Important as his philosophy of science might have been, he has, in the main, been dismissed as a dabbler by most serious historians of science. To put things succinctly, Lakatos believed that there is, at root, a deductive basis for scientific progress. Finally, Opie's use of Dennett's work in support of his point strikes me as odd. I, by contrast, find it telling.
Realism is, indeed, a very flexible doctrine.
How the Laws of Physics Lie. Oxford University Press. Representing and Intervening. The methodology of scientific research programmes. Cambridge University Press.