Its the nature of reporting that people want to report "new" things. However if the stuff actually worked it wouldn't be "new" it would just be in use. So instead they report on stuff that is 90% of the way there. Sometimes people figure out the last 10%, sometimes they don't. Sometimes they figure it out but it takes 20 years.

With the investment world being more exposed, and the research funding incentives, I seriously doubt it's just about reporting what people want to click. If I've learned anything in the last 15 years I've been paying attention - hype is more important than fundamentals for investment.

Usually they report on stuff that is 10% of the way there, because there's 1000× more of it.