It's not like before Popper scientists didn't know they had to design experiments to test their theories. Popper himself, from what I read of him, considered his work more useful as a way to tell apart real science from fake science (he gives Marxism as an example of the latter), than as anything that could help real scientists do their jobs.
In chapter 7 of "Dreams of a Final Theory", Steven Weinberg argues that philosophy has been mostly useless or even harmful for physicists, and whatever positive effects some philosophical theories might have had, had to do with undoing the harm done by other philosophical theories.
Weinberg is not hostile towards philosophy, he has warm words for it and says he enjoys reading certain philosophers, he just acknowledges that philosophy is not at all helpful in doing science. Exact quote: "I know of noone who has participated actively in the advance of physics in the postwar period whose research has been significantly helped by the work of philosophers." (Weinberg considers this surprising, and contrasts it with mathematics, which is extremely useful even though there is no reason why it should be.)
In chapter 7 of "Dreams of a Final Theory", Steven Weinberg argues that philosophy has been mostly useless or even harmful for physicists, and whatever positive effects some philosophical theories might have had, had to do with undoing the harm done by other philosophical theories.
Weinberg is not hostile towards philosophy, he has warm words for it and says he enjoys reading certain philosophers, he just acknowledges that philosophy is not at all helpful in doing science. Exact quote: "I know of no one who has participated actively in the advance of physics in the postwar period whose research has been significantly helped by the work of philosophers." (Weinberg considers this surprising, and contrasts it with mathematics, which is extremely useful even though there is no reason why it should be.)