Sorry, but _even as a physicist_ I think the idea that the expected returns for society of discovering some other obscure standard model particle are trivial to nothing. Literally useless knowledge and only of interest to a tiny minority of people (of whom I am a part, I admit). Like seriously. Consider: how has anyone's life been improved by the discovery of the Higgs? By the absence of Supersymmetry?
Neural network algorithm research was considered more of an academic endeavor rather than something that could have practical implications from the 1960s to even the early 2000s, compared to other machine learning algorithms. Look at where it took us today.
This is overblown. The vast majority of improvements to human lives can from textile and agricultural revolutions. Physics supplemented these, sure, but it wasn’t thanks to a few dudes hiding out in a lab doing theory.
Almost all the surplus we have could be traced back to our discoveries in physics leading to machines.
People lived much much poorer lives without modern physics discoveries.
The expects return on physics is so great we should find ways to afford more long shot experiments not less.