All progress so far has been related to scientific instruments in some way, shape, or form. We required the industrial revolution to get to where we are because our bodies can't do it.
So, yeah, anything but an industrial, or post-industrial computer driven line, is setting your country up for long term failure. There is lots of societal enrichment that comes not just from the direct production of these things and their sale but also from how they facilitate the ad-hoc understanding of reality.
The reason "dutch disease" is a problem for resource producing countries is that manufacturing productivity growth is much stronger compared to commodity production. It's better to be a manufacturing powerhouse than it is to be a commodity powerhouse.
It's entirely plausible that services are the same way, it's better to make things for other people than to do things for other people.