So it is possible that we could have pursued(time and money) on things that do not turn out to be impactful or left out working on those that could have had a major impact.
We do not do science for some high level goal of "Benefit for humanity". I love stars, I like astronomy, and when I study the stars, I do not think about how my study would impact humanity. I just study them because I find them interesting. (Studying star systems do not actually have much impact on humanity in general, mostly).
Attempting to qualify science only limits it.