> I'm talking about things that more amount to a form of pressure-induced willful stupidity, no dishonesty involved.

Isn't that still dishonesty though? If you know that you are misapplying statistical techniques to get what you want, how is that different from a pseudo-scientist talking about quantum mumbo-jumbo to get what he wants.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Lying_by_omission

On a bigger scale, this just fuels public anti-science, who is fed up of reading in the news "coffee is good for your heart" and the next day "coffee causes heart attacks". And it's not only because of journalists writing sensational titles, you can actually find meta-analysis pro/against any major food group.