Interesting post but I do not believe a fake surgery can be called a success if nothing is done. A damaged knee will stay damaged and pain will not be gone plus the knee will not get better.
So with this example I intend to believe these doctors love to operate for fun, telling people they are ill and this is not the case at all.
Btw: there are plenty of people who do not have any faith in a surgery... does that mean if the surgery did work it also did not work? It should work the other way round as well but it never does. So the only thing we know for sure (and this is proved) that these kind of tests are done in such a way to confirm what the scientist likes to hear.
And if it comes to "it can't tell the difference between reality and thoughts" neither can a computer.
I would love to know the opinion of the placebo patients after some time.