So I'll sketch a caricature answer. let's say the patent is released, and a year later every household in the world is thrilled to have black morels every nigh

So I'll sketch a caricature answer. let's say the patent is released, and a year later every household in the world is thrilled to have black morels every night for dinner, for free, out of their DIY morel cultivation box, and nobody anywhere in the world can ever sell a morel to anyone else again. Have "the taxpayers" seen benefit from this? In terms of currency return on investment, no. But in terms of access to a desirable commodity, heck yes. How much value have they seen? Something like 365 times the price of a meal's worth of mushrooms. The best government research generates benefits this broad.