I think I know what you're trying to ask. My take - as someone in the industry who has more work to do when people buy new things -
I have mixed and contrary feelings.
I don't think gear/advancements makes a lick of difference to 99% of riders. I think almost all "gains" are wishful thinking mostly but can be compiled and stacked together for marginal gains.
I think tech makes rides way more "enjoyable". That's the true value in most situations IMHO.
I have watched fit racers riding 40 year old tech win way too many times for me to ever believe that tech makes the difference (i'll give you elite TT's or top level crits where we are talking about the racers on the pointy end of the results).
Keirins - best night at the track. I think the basic system of the Japanese Keirin schools and racing could be brought to the US and deployed strategically. It would need to incorporate betting and could be the only way we ever get velodromes or tracks out in decent numbers.
When you posted it I thought of Little 500. I never raced it but looked into the tech/rules manual back in the early 90's as I went to Purdue but grew up in Bloomington and my childhood friends were locals who were attending IU. They were allowed one non-student on their crew. I was going to be it but they bailed. I then raced the Purdue equivalent of Grand Prix (50 mile go-kart race) that followed the same idea of roughly spec gear. I then got into kart racing. Ended up with a driver who had a ton of success making it on to ESPN when they covered Kart racing out at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He excelled at the Briggs class that was fairly heavily spec'd. Yes as a pure love of the sport those classes can make for some really good racing where skill and talent shine through....but I also find them boring.
The idea of me personally lining up in a category where the gear is spec and all of a sudden it has really become a stripped down fitness test is something that doesn't appeal to me at all. I was always a better mechanic than a racer. If that was my only option of racing I would leave it and that bothers me.
So I think tech doesn't make a difference but if it wasn't there and there was simply a stronger focus on physical talent I would leave racing. Weird. "The older I get the fewer are the answers that I know and the more OK I am with that fact"