Unpopular opinion.
Sometimes I look at university projects like this and I struggle to differentiate what is really innovation vs what is just grownup kids having too much time and money at their disposal.
They have time, because they accept lower remuneration for many years to work on things they are interested in.
All of this research has to get funding from somewhere. Presumably the funding bodies decided this was a potentially useful thing to fund.
So I'm not sure what your complaint is really. Are you unhappy because you personally don't see the value in some research? That it just looks too much fun to be "real" work?
I'm also realising, as I'm writing that this is a very well know objection to industry vs academia, and possibly my knowledge is limited enough that I'm most likely wrong :)