Agree. But how many distinctive things are going down or not even being noticed. It's too difficult to find one that can work and probably investors are more reluctant to put the money in something new , cause now you need quite a lot of money for anything. I understand your point but most money doesn't go to innovation but to proven markets. They're afraid of what they don't know. Look how hard is the hardware market.

You're right that they're 2 very different investments, but I don't think you can say unequivocally that #1 is better than #2. It all depends on desired returns, risk, etc. Let's face it, if you had given money to Apple in 1976 there was a good chance you were never seeing that money again.