Research takes time, launching something prematurely which is clearly not ready for practical application will sooner or later fail and suck out any further fun

Research takes time, launching something prematurely which is clearly not ready for practical application will sooner or later fail and suck out any further funding out the field. The goal of academic research is to further knowledge, as long as knowledge is produced even if is only that an approach will not work then they are not wasting anything. It is not job of academic research to monetize or even do work that can be potentially monetized. That what corporate research is for. If academia focused on monetization they wouldn't need to teach or depend on public funding to keen afloat. That is simply not their goal. Most academic scholars have a teaching day job and are more than fullfilling a useful role in society with just that . anything further is gravy