Comment by KaiserPro

Yes, it is _a_ driving force, but its not the only one.

the enlightenment was driven by "we can do thing better" and "to know god, we must know the world". A lot of money for research came from the catholic church (including for Galileo who wasn't put in jail for heliocentric, he was put in jail for being a massive insufferable arrogant prick)

In england, a lot of research was carried out by bored vicars, on CoE dime. (well pennies)

So yes, profit can be a motivator, and it can be very effective, it needs to be tempered with humanity. We could go into who a lot of brands we see today that are old were founded by quackers, but we dont have time for that.

the TLDR is, yes profit is a motivator, but its often short termist.