Quick responses.

The large body of evidence for the Newcomb/Benford Law of first digits, coming from all over nature’s observable scales, argues for relative scale, as opposed to absolute scale. The “why” is because the various methods that lead to the law, e.g., scale invariance and linear recursion, argue that nature favors relative scale. If not, then the law would not be ubiquitous.

The Newcomb/Benford Law is definitely used in efforts to detect many types of financial fraud where the books are cooked.The law reveals the faked accounting subterfuge.

In studying nature, ideas should lead and mathematics should follow. Theoretical physics has been operating ass-backwards for decades and that is why it has been floundering. The situation is only going to get worse until they get back to studying nature empirically and applying pattern recognition. Like Einstein did in the first half of his research career. Trying to lead with mathematics, before properly identifying the key concepts and principles, is a prescription for mediocre model-building. The key concepts and principles can only come from studying nature observationally/empirically.