While many people today think that “purpose” is an ill-founded biological category, most people aren’t aware of its historical significance in the history of biology. The “doctrine of creation” has been a formalized version of the idea of purpose in biology, and is at least in name still adhered to by theistic evolutionists (hence why they are now calling themselves “evolutionary creationists”). In the case of the evolutionary creationists, their use of the doctrine of creation is primarily a post-hoc mode of storytelling.
However, historically, the doctrine of creation has been foundational to the making of modern biology.
It is difficult to see, given its historical pedigree, why all-of-a-sudden trying to use the idea of purpose within biology is somehow a science-stopper, when it has actually started so many branches of biology.