Because developing new stuff - although advertisement and PRopangda will tell you the exact oppposite- are bloody dangerous. If you are the first to do a thing,

Because developing new stuff - although advertisement and PRopangda will tell you the exact oppposite- are bloody dangerous. If you are the first to do a thing, you are the first to craft the tools for it, the first to experiment, the first to find errors in the equations, the first to be delayed and then to be overtaken by a spying competitor learning from your mistakes. The first to be put out of buisness by somebody who realizes your advances put them into danger- with all the force of a currently working buisness. Prototypes might make good tv-clips. What they do not show, is how often those endavours end pathetic - Rocket explodes, Cars crash, Robots fall and the guys working on them get laughed at by there collagues who stuck to more incremental research. Getting a steampowered nuclear reactor going- fast- getting a fusion plant going - not so much.