If personal anecdote is poor evidence of a more universal truth, then fictional anecdote is even worse, and the foundation of a great novel deserves better. So I propose that there is a place for direct, sustained, quantitive analysis/argument in literary fiction. The main characters and their immediate story need not, and absolutely should not, be touched by this, but the establishment of setting is also important, and this ought to be done, well, with direct, sustained, quantitive analysis/argument.
Counter-Currents