To your point, Jules Verne imagined shooting men to the moon with a big gun. But to OP’s point, the vision inspired enough people that we eventually built rocke

To your point, Jules Verne imagined shooting men to the moon with a big gun. But to OP’s point, the vision inspired enough people that we eventually built rockets. There’s no dichotomy here. But there is a dependency: means for nowhere without ends, and the ends often generate the means (so much so that we speak of ends not justifying means).