[gameman144]

I have a hard time believing that the Wright Brothers innovated for no reason other than a desire to improve technology. The appeal of human flight is/was well-established, and there was clear utility in it.

Even in the link you posted, it mentioned that immediately after creating a viable flying machine, the Wright brothers approached militaries worldwide trying to sell it to them.

Basic science and pure math research do exist, and I'm sure loads of people push for advances in tech without any eye towards profit or power, but basically any real-world product or system was engineered with a specific goal in mind.