Studying engineering isn't the same as innovating, but you accept that people need to know the field first. the same is true for other fields, even if the domain knowledge isn't obvious to you.
Can you point to some great artists and writers who studied art history or literature? I agree that formal study and practice of music (not the same as studying music history btw) has lead to a lot of great music.
What about editing, critiquing, or writing pop novels(perhaps somewhat equivalent to overseeing new devices or just engineering common devices). That also needs to get done.
