> Submitting a paper to a conference because it’s got a decent shot at acceptance and you don’t want the time you spent on it go to waste, even though you’ve since realized that the core ideas aren’t quite correct. I don't see a problem with this? If papers are the vehicle for conference entries why shouldn't authors submit it just because it's wrong? Conferences are for discussion. So go there and discuss it... "My…
The issue is omitting the second ("ABC") part. Mainly because "XYZ looks like a promising way to cure cancer" would be considered a more interesting result than "XYZ looks like a promising way to cure cancer, but isn't due to ABC", and thus the former will be accepted at more prestigious conferences/journals than the latter.