Yes, in terms of the funding received by researchers, it doesn't necessarily differ too much, whether it's investigator-led or applied. The difference is what strings are attached to receiving those funds.
Are they required to establish a particular outcome that is commercializable or not? Is it narrowly confined to a particular research area or things of that nature?
Again, it's not to say that.... Many commercializable innovations in our society have been the result of basic research, but it's a question of whether we're framing the nature of the research at the outset when providing funding. That's okay in some cases, but we think it's gone too far in that direction.