The first question is what scientific research is actually for. Is it merely for profitable technological applications? The Greek or the humanistic or the enlightenment ideal wasn't just that. Fundamental research can be its own endeavor, simply to understand more clearly something. We don't only do astronomy for example in order to build some better contraption and understanding evolution wasn't only about producing better medicine. But it's much harder to quantify elegance or aesthetics of an idea and its impact.
And if you say that this should only be a small segment, and most of it should be tech-optimization, I can accept that, but currently science runs also on this kind of aesthetic idealist prestige. In the overall epistemic economy of society, science fills a certain role. It's distinct from "mere" engineering. The Ph in PhD stands for philosophy.