Eh, there's also usually a lot less money on the line in academia. I would bet that this particular type of problem is positively correlated with potential commercializability.
Which sometimes buffles me because it doesn't reward particularly well for a position reserved to people with strong intellectual prowess, it merely prevent people from being fired for doing nothing.
There are definitely people in academia that are driven for truth, but I don't know if that's the majority or a minority.