Helmet Fire you are quite right! Don't expect innovation to generate from a contractor who will only do what they are contrated to do so. Anything more will eat into their profit margin and lets face it a commercial operator is primarily interested in maximising their profit. Of course if the client wants to do something innovative with the contractor's aircraft the contractor is only to happy to oblige but at their price and terms. The price can be high enough to make you think twice about continuing on with the idea.
Innovation usually comes from the non-commercial organisations, such as, government and NGO's and as I said above, if through a contractor, it will come at a hefty price tag as contractually it is usually not possible to obtain other quotes for work to be done on 'their' aircraft. Not owning your own aircraft can make things difficult if not contractually tied up before hand.