You are assuming everyone is working at a well-funded research institutions. There are smaller universities where research grants are necessary and patents are

You are assuming everyone is working at a well-funded research institutions. There are smaller universities where research grants are necessary and patents are also a way to keep someone for promotion. When you go to some scientific /engineering conference, you'd find many people holding one or more patents. This is almost a competition and a ranking system. The more patents you have, the prouder you feel. Anyone can conduct a research, with or without research grant, but patent is not. When you have a patent along with a published paper, people look at this product very different - this is good - otherwise someone else would have already done it.