btw, I could take your argument and say there has been no real innovation in the entire bike industry in 80 years, only incremental improvements.
I suppose it depends on what you define as innovation. I would cite slant parallelogram derailleurs, dual-pivot brakes, index shifting, aluminum and carbon fiber frames, and most recently di2 as innovations in that time period. I suppose I would have to include mtb suspension as well. And those are just the ones that stuck. (BTW, is it wrong that I only adopted slant parallelogram derailleurs, some dual-pivot brakes, and occasionally index shifting?)