I've been interested in this point for a long time. It would be valuable, I think, to explore it systematically, the way I imagine a sociologist might. For example, what are the career outcomes for student-generated vs. mentor-generated research? Maybe someone has already done something like that.

I'm retired now, but it is the activity I miss most. Because the reviewers are almost invariably wrong, it's usually more like a victory lap than an argument.