Research is, almost by necessity, based on "pipe dreams". If there's certainty of outcome it isn't research, and most likely doesn't belong in academia.
Second, well, private investors give money to whoever they want. If they believed they'd get most out of their money by just following some academic metric like citation count or impact factor (and throwing money at them), that's what they'd likely be doing; I don't think this would work all that well for them, do you? For one it's very hard to come up with any objective metric that can't be gamed, distorted, etc. The Media Lab has a rich history of collaboration with industry and yes developing innovative products/ideas. They promote this history, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
Second, well, private investors give money to whoever they want. If they believed they'd get most out of their money by just following some academic metric like citation count or impact factor (and throwing money at them), that's what they'd likely be doing; I don't think this would work all that well for them, do you? For one it's very hard to come up with any objective metric that can't be gamed, distorted, etc. The Media Lab has a rich history of collaboration with industry and yes developing innovative products/ideas. They promote this history, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that.