Depends on who you get to be your "peers".
In reality, if you want a good fundable follow on to your project, you get "peers" that think just like you do. If you want your peer reviewed paper to be well received, you send it to people who think just like you do. If you think journals don't work like that, then I can't help you. Spend some time in the lab and come back and we'll discuss it.
Oh, you mean "peer reviewed"...like getting a reproducible result? Shhhh! That happens after the checks are doled out.
And yes, "Funding is on my mind, funding is always on my mind" is pretty much the song of science these days. In many cases the compensation (not to mention prestige) PIs receive from their universities or other institutions are DIRECLY related to the grant money they get rolling in.
As far as climate science....der uberlords at NOAA, the one's that write the checks, are political appointments. When they say "hmmm, a Representative who sits on the ways and means committee...the one who writes our checks, is concerned that there is a lack of lilac scented unicorn flautus"...word gets out and every project looking for money (which is to say all of them) will have the key words "unicorn flautus" in it's proposal.
But that's all OK, as long as the researchers aren't invested in specific results. But having been around the block a time or two, and have seen the results of some squishy science, I can tell you that's MUCH harder done than said.
Richman