The idea that academic work should be grounded in "applicability" is a lazy canard. Nobody was much convinced that decades of work in number theory was worth much of anything until applications in cryptography were discovered. We just don't know what we'll find.
Academic research in every field is undertaken for its own sake. If you want to work on "applicability", go get a job in industry. Finance is still hiring quants, for example.
Academic research in every field is undertaken for its own sake. If you want to work on "applicability", go get a job in industry. Finance is still hiring quants, for example.