That is not at all surprising, and quite consistent with institutional view on organizational behavior. In short this view holds that organizational actors "satisifice" (i.e. try to meet the minimum requirements) rather than "maximize" and the decisions are guesswork often made to acommodate the key players' agendas, and only ex post facto rationalized as long range strategy to implement organization's mission. There is no reason for inventions to be any different.
That casts an intersting light on the notion of whether capitalism is a consistent strategy to mold social environment to its advantage - or opportunistic search for profits taking advantage of the opportunities as they happen but essnetially incapable of long range strategizing. It seems that capitalism, especially of the US variety, is mostly luck, a windfall of geographic location (isolation from the theaters of major conflicts) and opportunities for profiteering created by far-away international conflicts (esp. WWI and WWII). Once it reached a certain critical mass, its sheer size attracted new resources and allowed to go through by inertia, its fundamental wastefulness and irrationality notwithstanding.
wojtek