I am genuinely interested in how you think that science and faith can be reconciled, especially when we are talking about the detailed claims of specific faiths.

You'll find that the great majority of believers are really not at all demanding when it comes to such reconciliation, once they've accepted that Genesis is not literally true. What often happens is that they're reassured that no-one objects to a deist-type God, and after that, they can go on happily thinking about an ordinary, interventionist sort of God who just happens to have set evolution in motion :)

It doesn't make much sense, but that doesn't really matter. It's a definite improvement on the YECs, and allows Christians to study science with less stress and conflict. And also makes it easier for their offspring to abandon religious faith altogether.

So where is the "construtive role to play" in trotting out bad arguments£

It helps American Christians to escape the clutches of the fundamentalists, which can only be a good thing.