Yep, it always comes down to consciousness. And if you think about it, the scientific method actually reflects this.

After all, the way science works is essentially that one sentient person does some experiment / procedure, and documents whatever they observed / witnessed / perceived, and then invites other sentient beings to try the same experiment / procedure, and see if they end up observing / witnessing / perceiving the same thing.

At no point in this process is there ever any grounds - or reason - to claim that you've made a "metaphysical" discovery, or gained any knowledge about the "true" nature of anything (whatever that even means). All we've ever done - or probably can do - is find patterns that might help ourselves or others form better predictions about what we might observe / perceive next within a given context.

And perhaps the really big thing to realize is that this is not even a limitation of science. It's a limitation of our sentient perspective.