I understand your point. At the same time I don't think you appreciate the issues in a biological system compared to a semiconductor system.
First the is the numeric problem. Hundreds of chips are made in each wafer. That give a statistical basis that is very difficult and expensive to create in biological systems. Then there is the ability to control variables in a semi production system. Compare that to a biological system with thousands of different molecules, enzymes, gene expressions etc.
The tools available to the semi industry are far more useful than the tools available to the medical industry. The medical world is making big progress in the last decade, even so, compared to things like an atomic force microscope the medical industry has it's hands tied behind its back. Human testing has a do no harm or at least create a harm benefit ratio that is beneficial. In the semi world you can do whatever you need to that will assist understanding. Is there an ethics review committee for testing in the semi world. (yeah, that one was a cheap shot. My apologies.)
Then there is the access to the system. Chips can be probed, stress tested, and shaved off layer by layer to see what is going on or going wrong. The brain is in a bone case and getting inside that case to do testing is minimal. Of course doing repeated destructive testing is a no go.
Also there is a time frame issue. A chip run can be made in a few days. AD process seems to occur over 20 years. Many disease processes have long time lines which slow the research process down accordingly. Cancer drugs were typically measured in survival rate after 5 years. Now with surrogate biomarkers that is changing to a much more manageable time frame. The technology that allows for these biomarkers is relatively new.
Animal models do allow for more testing and increased numbers for testing, but animal models are not exact replications of humans so the results are instructive but not always representative.
Physics and quantum mechanics is far better understood than many disease processes. As you point out, the root cause of Alz is not yet known. See the above points to help understand why that is.
