yep, Europe is demonstrating the same sort of strategic thinking that economic behemoths like the Smithsonian use

Why wasting money on trying to compete at all then?

Every country needs a few plumbers and carpenters whether or not they are at the forefront of technology. Some money must be spent to give academics work to do so they can sharpen up their skills and perhaps teach the next set of students who might be more commercial

It would be a better use of the money to hire someone who has worked on actual frontier models to teach at European universities

If you could find one for the money, if they were happy to teach in the long term. If it wasn't better to have N for the price of 1. In other situations of import substitution I'm pretty sure people try to develop their local talent in addition to buying in experts.