First off, SpaceX had little/nothing to do with any of the stuff you mentioned.
Second, I am not devaluing what SpaceX has done or is trying to do. I am a big fan actually of such ventures which strive to find new frontiers.
My reply was in the context of this thread where lot of people are dissing Uber saying they are not a real technology company, and people lamenting the fact that a taxi company raised more money than a space faring company.
I was pointing out the close-mindedness (if you will) of those people. Uber is having tremendous impact in the here and now across the world, and touching the lives of millions of people. What they have done is nothing to dismiss. Also the vision of the future they are working towards could be even more transformative (possibly save hundreds of thousands of lives a year).
What SpaceX is trying is far more riskier and ambitious and its rewards for humanity (if it succeeds) lay further into the future and may end up having greater impact on the future of humanity (or it may not). In the interim its impact is limited (because it is a long-term project).
It makes no sense to compare the two ventures as some competition. The worlds needs both. There is nothing wrong with the fact that Uber has a greater valuation than SpaceX. Uber provides greater value to their customers right now. And they could provide greater returns to their investors sooner (if they chose to ). SpaceX as of now is much more riskier investment and its real returns lay farther in the future.
A satellite today will probably be filled with electronic components designed 20 years ago. Justifying doing anything new is hugely expensive and so rarely happens.
Ultimately, in the past designing for space was a new field with rapid development but as the field has matured the huge cost involved in launching anything has made the whole industry hugely risk averse. There is innovation happening from new players (cube sats, spacex), but even these areas are mostly about finding cheaper ways to do things rather than inventing new stuff.
What has manned (!) space flight ever done for us?
edit - there is other stuff as well, but 'peace' seemed the best option to go with given the way you phrased the question - https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Hubble_I...
(One competing hypothesis is `nukes kept the peace'.)
Both worlds could end up in an all-out nuclear war, but which one do you think is more likely?
I was thinking of rather more evidence-based evidence.