Its not a bad thing, but exploratory research as opposed to reaearch that finetunes along a path already paved by exploratory research is something that doesn’t usually happen much in for-profit product-oriented firms when there is such a path available; it happens in academia and corporate labs pick it up once it reaches the point where the basics show commercial promise. CS is a little bit of an exception because the capital cost of basic research isn’t, proportionally, as high, and because the promise-to-product path is often short enough that having done the basic work in house can be a meaningful advantage in getting to market first (though, see Google on much of modern AI for a counterexample).

But even in computing, when there is a promising way forward that the basic reaearch has been done on, its hard to justify side quests.

It’s a simple exploration/exploitation trade off. Always explore, never exploit is probably not the optimal strategy every time.

The right idea usually comes from a wrong one.

The issue isn't the exploration itself, it's the opportunity cost. When a figure of Yann LeCun's influence pushes a specific direction, it pulls key talent and resources away from mainstream LLM work. That kind of organizational distraction has a massive cost, and would've stopped Meta from delivering a polished product like Muse sooner.