Life happens

Craig Venter purportedly created the first synthetic life. He "designed" this cell.

Say Venter's cell looks and functions like a real cell of the same type. Say he releases his cell into the wild, as it were, into nature.

If modern evolutionary theory is assumed, it's possible scientists will think the cell evolved through the standard neo-Darwinian mechanisms, and end further research into its origins at this point.

However, if intelligent design is on the table, it's possible scientists still think the cell evolved through the standard neo-Darwinian mechanisms. But what scientists open to ID will have in addition is the possibility that the cell was designed by an intelligence or an intelligent agent.

As such, in this case ID scientists would be closer to the truth than scientists who don't subscribe to ID or who are even hostile to ID.

Plus, it's the opponents of ID who would be "science stoppers" here.