> If you are politically connected, or stay in a narrow lane of approved work, you get your grant. But if you stray from the politically approved path..

Exactly.

For example, if your research is about how to perform extreme body modifications on minors who think they are a gender that didn't exist 5 minutes ago, your funding is safe. But if you stray from the politically approved path, and discover something heretical like, "Actually, humans are sexually dimorphic" then you and your grant will be cancelled.