This seems like the true approach.

And arguably, the more valuable one. Bringing something to the masses

a) which used to be expensive but is now cheap or

b) which is new but affordable for most

is what changes people's lives.

I think this is a bias because we only read American media and are flooded by American influence. Countries like Sweden, Switzerland have innovative universities highly ranked. A huge density of startups close to them. High technologies and services available to citizens (for example bank system, rail system, fiber to the home...). And of course a social and retirement system that gives the whole population a really high power of consumption. They are small countries that are easier to manage. But they definitely deserve their rank in my own humble opinion.

I wonder if that picture is somewhat distorted by the overwhelming dominance of reporting on every little thing that a couple of large US tech conglomerates do.

That said, I tend to be skeptical of such rankings as well.

While I agree with you on the flawed metrics, I think that on a per-capita basis some of the Nordics are on par (and maybe have even surpassed) the US when it comes to tech innovation.

Only if you're looking at consumer-facing business. Not every startup tries to create a brand and get articles written in TechCrunch and NYT: many are just developing revolutionary tech that is later bought and used by others.

I think the key words are "density" and "concentration".

A lot more big picture/consumer-facing innovation comes out of the US, because that's bolstered by cultural influence, but South Korea's manufacturing innovation is insane. iPhones may be designed in America, but the components they need to function come from a series of brilliant Korean inventions.