Yes and no. Many kinds of innovation happen because people are curious... provided they can afford to indulge their curiosity. Of course, I don't know many people who can personally afford to do the kind of research they are employed to do, so there are important limits at work. Funding plays a major role in enabling curiosity.

That said, there's also application. Curiosity may lead to someone discovering a particular complex chemical, but curiosity won't turn it into a cheaply produced pill available at your corner pharmacy.

Anecdotes aside, they still require massive amounts of capital in order to create useful applications.

Hobbyists tinkering in a hanger did not create modern airlines - giant corporations like Boeing managed the capital required to make it happen.

Hobbyists tinkering in a garage are not going to be able to carry out years of dedicated research followed by years of study followed by years of clinical trials.

Improving things just to improve them and research just for curiosity's sake are foreign concepts to those running the markets.