I worked out the benefits of the science tech for VV2 - haven't a chance to do it for VV3 yet, plus the complication of the different factions, but....

(stuff about VV2 deleted).

Did a quick eyeball test - in my 3-4 minutes of checking (village with no faction chosen), an adept scientist at L1 Science produced 7 tech points for each success. A master scientist produced 9 points. After purchasing L2 Science, these values went up by ~25% (adept from 7 to 9, master from 9 to 12). Not as useful as VV2, note.

So which is more efficient? Here's a quick breakdown by number of times a villager has to be successful to complete the task (I round all fractions up):

With L1 Science, earning 50,000 tech points
-- 7,143 successes by an adept (50,000/7)
-- 5,556 successes by a master (50,000/9)

To earn L2 Science (11,000) and then 50,000 tech points:
-- 7,128 successes by an adept (11,000/7 + 50,000/9)
-- 5,390 successes by a master (11,000/9 + 50,000/12)

Faster? Probably. Tremendously faster? Probably not, although I'll note that we're not looking at the chances of success for each task. It's possible that the villagers are more likely to succeed (and earn tech points) at higher levels of science tech, so not only do they need to be successful fewer times, but they are going to be successful more often and earn points faster.