>But it’s fair to assume that such fields have not been idle either.

"Manngell amnesia", where if you hear of breakthroughs in any field other than AI, you assume that very field has always been stagnant?

There's another angle to this. Eg MoF-synthesis is a breakthrough unappreciated outside of chem because of how embarrassingly easy it is. Laymen (& VCs) expect breakthroughs to require complexity, billions, wasted careers, risk, unending slog etc..

Read the bios of the chem nobellists to see what stress-free lives they led (around the time of the discovery), even compared to VCs and proof assistant researchers. Disclaimer: possibly not applicable to physics/physiology laureates after 1970 :)

https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Naked-Mind-Field-Mullis/dp/07...

Mullis succeeded in demonstrating PCR on December 16, 1983, but the staff remained circumspect as he continued to produce ambiguous results amid alleged methodological problems, including a perceived lack of "appropriate controls and repetition."

(From wiki)