The largest contingent of physicists do work on Condensed Matter Physics, which is essentially materials science https://arxiv.org/pdf/1901.02789.pdf https://ar

The largest contingent of physicists do work on Condensed Matter Physics, which is essentially materials science https://arxiv.org/pdf/1901.02789.pdf https://arxiv.org/pdf/1901.02789.pdf For exactly, the reason you suggest: they get the largest amount of funding because it is the most economically useful subfield.