[reinitctxoffset]

Publishing science makes progress in a field faster, almost always.

I'll stop short of saying that this is totally consensus, but it's at least a widely held opinion that the Industrial Revolution was centered on Great Britain to the degree that it was not for want of skilled machinists on the Continent, but because the crown's patent system caused the science to be published.

I think the economical explanation is that some combination of the state, the cultural norms, and the sincerity (!!) of the executives involved has landed on "go faster via publishing science".

The weird situation that defies precedent and is very hard to justify as being socially useful is the situation that obtains here.