I believe research is most useful at the macroscopic level, at the inception of a project. There is a need for research at this point. But it doesn't stop here. It continues through out the life of the project. Research has a compelling role to play in this because it is science.
Some research is science.
Some is good engineering practice. Again, it depends on the tools you are referring to. Only if you don't have the right tools. We've measured it and succeeded. We've built fully working prototypes without a line of code.