medicine (living longer, curing disease, vaccines, etc), cheaper energy, cheaper transportation, cheaper construction, cheaper food, better communication, new forms of entertainment, just off the top of my head.
There are quite a lot of science that's basic research and it's done for scientific curiosity only with no clear way of translating that to marketable applications.
on one hand, I feel you should append "...yet" into that thought. just because it hasn't been useful technologically now doesn't mean it never will.
on the other hand, I've seen some physicists doubt that quarks even exist out of a controversy about Feynman's allegedly missing diagrams
Banks and investors provide liquidity to the system, which is just one of many things the market demands.