I don't think anyone is accusing academics of lying -- academics are just more likely to announce things no industrial relevance. Because industrial relevance is not required for academic relevance.
It depends on what you mean by "more likely to announce things with no industrial relevance". If we are including humanities, then yes. If we exclude humanities, then no. Nearly all current STEM advancements can be traced back to early university work because industries normally do not pay for R&D because of its high risk, low reward effort. Not to mention, it's a money sink.
Even current AI models come straight from university work, intermixed with private industry who often apply these concepts and scale them, but aren't the idea originators.
> Nearly all current STEM advancements can be traced back to early university work because industries normally do not pay for R&D because of its high risk, low reward effort.