Why Can't Scientists & Inventors Claim Credit for Human Progress?

Here is a quick burst of ideas I plan to explore in greater depth someday... Explain to me why scientists & inventors can't lay claim to the lion's share of credit for the improvements to life in the past 100 years. I believe in Capitalism but not in "Unfettered Free Markets". Show me the UFM that supposedly created a "net benefit" to humanity without scientists & inventors. Conversely, show me how China's protectionist rules have been a "net detriment" to itself. Why do people who claim "Unfettered Free Markets have created the greatest wealth compared to any other system..." get a free-pass such that they get to coast on correlation without proving causality? FINALLY...Trade Deficits do matter when your currency becomes devalued because you end up paying a greater and greater share of your country's wealth for a smaller and smaller net benefit that was created by another country.