Do you ever think about abandoned tech trees? Like how no one is working to design better drafting compasses or vellum?  No one is perfecting vacuum tubes. No one is laser focused on methods to speed paint and accurate portrait by hand to send out for marriage proposals. 

Technological leaps make entire areas of research pointless— but

What if just a bit further down the line on the old tech tree there was some bigger breakthrough we’ll never see? I think about this A LOT.