Didn't intend to make it an extended digestion metaphor, but it's appropriate: synthetic users are not merely slop, they are shit. If you let them into your decision-making, they will contaminate your product and give your users diarrhea of the brain.
@spavel.bsky.socialGood research is difficult and time-consuming because it is done to *challenge* our assumptions. Synthetic users' only purpose is to allow those assumptions to remain unchallenged. They are not "research but faster." They are "going with your gut, but with extra steps to cover your ass."