I guess I get what you are saying. Creating the first of its kind is "deep tech".
I really don't care about the definition or semantics here personally. I think creating first one is great, but then depending what it is creating 10th generation can also be quite a breakthrough. First IC had like 10 transistors, modern ones do billions and getting there probably require way more work, ideas and research than the original IC did. Things just don't improve in silos.