It has been my experience as a consultant and in-house that engineering departments significantly overvalue the R&D they perform. R&D has value, but nowhere near what the engineers think it does, especially when all of the costs of bringing that R&D to market are taken into consideration.
See, for example, Juicero, Bird, Boosted, Magic Leap, Theranos, etc.
Putting this dissenting opinion on HN will likely get you downvoted, but I for one appreciate it. There is a balancing act of profit vs development that us engineers to overlook.
However, some of your examples aren't great IMO. Theranos should have been ONLY R&D, as it was never a product that was ready to bring to market. Same with Magic Leap.
I think also due to Boeing's business of making tin cans move hundreds of miles of hour thousands of feet in the air, means the engineering department should be their primary focus as well, thus all the outrage at the company.
See, for example, Juicero, Bird, Boosted, Magic Leap, Theranos, etc.