Mark
CreativeMountainGames.com
Yes, good ideas are plentiful and some of the best ideas are definitely going to come from the smaller companies and relative unknowns but I have the somewhat pessimistic viewpoint that most good ideas never amount to large scale commercial success for the creators.
I think this is a bit of a revision from your original assertion (the one I first disagreed with) -
Sure there were issues and since D&D is the biggest game in town (and ultimately that is what we are talking about) it somewhat naive at this point to think the innovation in the category is going to come from somewhere else.
Anyway, I'm not all that sure it matter much where the ideas come from, nor that it matters to the general public if the creator/innovator makes a ton of money. Let's just hope that those who do the innovating get at least what they hope to get.