I can’t imagine any circumstance other than a Ph.D program where someone spends 5+ years studying in depth some tiny area of science and practicing research. And without doing that I’m having trouble believing almost anyone will do serious research. There are a few people who did it but to me that is extraordinarily unlikely.
Agreed, those people are few and far between. Even if your job is fairly stable, you'll more likely work 'around' a problem more than a deep dive into a very specific problem.
