They had arguments about physics that the OP weirdly downplays. Like I said below: Copernicus disliked the equant because it contradicted the most straightforward reading of Ptolemy’s own physics; Kepler unambiguously disproved scholastic physics. Also, Galileo discovered Galilean relativity. He definitely made enough observations to show this last idea had something to it, unlike the scholastic explanation of heavenly bodies.
They had arguments about physics that the OP weirdly downplays. Like I said below: Copernicus disliked the equant because it contradicted the most straightforward reading of Ptolemy’s own physics; Kepler unambiguously disproved scholastic physics. Also, Galileo discovered Galilean relativity. He definitely made enough observations to show this last idea had something to it, unlike the scholastic explanation of heavenly bodies.