It's not just that not a lot of science is applied to the craft of programming. It is that many programmers are actively hostile to the concept. For example, the rules of programmers.se forbid asking for statistics. So if you want to know objective facts about the craft of programming, you're forbidden from asking for it on the most popular forum about that craft. When I asked why this rule was in place, it became apparent that the only real reason was an irrational dislike of statistics. With that kind of attitude our craft will never become an engineering discipline..