tbh the big thing in the free market thinking that's driving a lot of these policies is that corporations are actually true profit maximizers, but like, they're much more concerned with self-preservation and hence very risk avoidant, which makes public research extraordinarily valuable
Public research also has the positive externality of preventing wasted/redundant R&D investment, with firms no longer spending the same R&D on the same thing, only for one to finish slightly earlier than the other and get the patent for it.
Comments
To the rice fields with you.