If it could be profitable, the private sector would fund it.

Government funding can help with things that we decide are good for society, but not quite profitable financially.

Examples: CDC lead exposure research, Earthquake Early Warning System… even the tech we use today came out of non-commercialized funding (NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography and ARPANET).

And if there is a probability of profitability then there is a market to sell that opportunity for capital.

But in a high interest rate environment some ideas just arent worth exploring.

generating private profits are the best use of public money?

So absurdly myopic to restrict research to what may be profitable in this moment. Why are you wasting time researching number theory bro, that'll never be useful. Why are you studying y^2 = x^3 + ax + b if it can't be turned into a SaaS unicorn tomorrow? So fucking stupid. The whole point is that commercial R&D can find the immediate to short term gains and make billions, while the long shots get funded without putting anyone at risk.