I definitely exaggerated, but a great example of the opposite case is CERN. Physicists knew the limits of what could and couldn't be tested with it, but they hyped it up to convince governments to spend money anyway. The JWST is a much more fruitful project, but how many of those are there compared to projects that just focus on getting grant money. We should build more telescopes and fewer participle accelerators, but the grant money doesn't match the need since it's hard for politicians to understand.