Big tech isn't able to do certain innovations. It's not that intermediate wins don't matter, but that innovative capabilities don't come out fully formed with a business model. And I don't know of any big techs that effectively do business model and tech innovations at the same time.

If your goal is only promotions inside of big tech then definitely throw most innovative ideas out the window. But if you're interested in innovation, then big tech either needs to get a lot more entrepreneurial or less big.