I suppose your point is that the researcher's goal in not exactly to ship working software either, but wouldn't that put the researcher's goals at worst neutral then?
Likewise your goal is not to publish research, but it is also not to actively work against it either. From their standpoint you're also at worst neutral.
It's also worth pointing out that the motivating factor doesn't necessarily have to be the same for each party to have a common goal. I'd argue that this is how it actually is most of the time.
I do work for a customer so that my boss doesn't fire me and I get my paycheck, whereas my boss does work for the customer to bring money to their company and to not go bankrupt. The customer helps with the work we're doing for them because they want something out of the project that is their money's worth. Our motivations are different, but the goal is the same - to build a thing that works.
My point is that it just seems very likely that some common ground can be found between you and the researchers, regardless of your individual motivations and since there's really no inherent conflict either.