Yeah, "cargo cult" is abused as a term. Those islanders were smarter than what is happening here.

We use it dismissively but "cargo cult" behaviour is entirely reasonable. You know an effect is possible, and you observe novel things corellating with it. You try them to test the causality. It looks silly when you know the lesson already, but it was intelligent and reasonable behaviour the entire way.

The current situation is bubble denial, not cargo culting. Blaming cargo culting is a mechanism of bubble denial here.