"the demand is also permanently growing" I'd argue that nothing is 'permanently growing' but I get your point. That increase in demand, however, is not pulled out of thin air, it is deeply tied to a limited phenomena -- it is far more inelastic.

"R&D however always follows manufacturing, it's just the nature of their relationship" This is true but R&D leads to whole new markets with explosive growth as opposed to commodity plateaus and slower incremental growth based on population or other rate limited market phenomena.