[moonchrome]

Money is just one small aspect of it - getting into that kind of research probably requires >2σ IQ, then there's the affinity and motivation - you are left with a small pool of people who can do this work.

By funding toy projects and pipe dreams you are crowding out useful research - and there's plenty of fundamental work in material sciences, superconductivity, etc. that could actually improve the lives of everyone

[alach11]

It sounds like you're worried that creating high-paying fundamental science jobs would pull smart people away from engineering. But it would be more likely to pull smart people from zero-sum (or at least low-sum) fields like advertising and finance.

[moonchrome]

No - there's a lot of science to be done in these fields - it's just applied (ie. practical). When you fund "fundamental" research - you're not only diverting limited funds - you're diverting limited talent - so it's double crowding out.