Maarten van Doorn in the article "How wrong ideas about knowledge can ruin decisions" talks about the dangerous fiction of "averages."
A significant conclusion flaw is thinking information about averages could give us information about individuals. What's true about the "average" member of a group could be true about no members of this group. The average is an abstract concept and as such doesn't exist in the real world. Knowing it has no value in helping us interact at the individual level. Taking action on the fiction of an average impacts no individual in the group.
No amount of data or research, or political pressure behind it, can render averages of anything valuable. No policy can succeed in its intent if it's based on data averages, no matter how rigorous the methodology.