I sort of agree with you. Philosophers I knew in grad school were somewhat of dilletantes who didn’t want to commit to becoming an expert within a single scientific epistemology.

But... I don’t know, that feels a little uncharitable too.

I think the charitable reading is that yes, a philosopher of science doesn’t know the science as well as the scientist. They are not as close to the cutting edge of what we know....

But what they can do is look closer at how the scientist knows. And what other people who are not that scientist know. And from there situate the knowledge in a wider context. Not knowledge the universe but knowledge about knowings.