I absolutely agree with you that public research should intervene in areas in which companies are deterred from conducting research due to self-interest. Absolutely, public research must push inorganically in many fields before those fields appear profitable enough for private firms to come in, and even then continued public development and oversight may be beneficial. Absolutely, many modern day electronics would not exist without such research. I just kind of feel like the reverse is also true, and that therefore the line between public and private research can be somewhat blurred. Both rely on each other.

But yes, it does sort of seem like governments and public institutions often lay the basic foundations of technology, while private firms are the ones to take those technologies and make them achieve their potentials. But I can't say I see that as always being the case.

I guess I don't disagree with you much here, if at all. I just sort of got the vibe that you were completely dismissing any sort of private development as unimportant, which might have been my bad.