Most of your posts, PDR, seem to be very logical but it simply doesn't follow that an expensive procurement process is necessarily linked to technical advance. On the contrary, there are instances of the procurement process taking so long that the equipment is obsolete before it even enters service!
Nobody is suggesting that buying kids toys is a good idea, as in the walkie-talkie example. But there are many robust and capable handheld radios in widespread use. Insisting that ours be designed to order would seem to be a good example of wasteful procurement.