of course it makes sense, since all your work doesn't actually produce something that can be counted in monetary units...
I don't think that's true -- particularly not in the CS field.
It has more to do with universities wanting to choose sources of funding that give them academic freedom. (Soliciting private capital as an investment is out of the question for early research, for instance, though university spin-off companies based on successful research are fairly common.) You can be funded from a university endowment, but if you're at a university that has limited funds earmarked for research, you're stuck appealing to the pencil-pushing grant agencies, who generally lack clue, and obtaining funding there is more an indication of your grant proposal authorship skills than anything else.
no subject
I don't think that's true -- particularly not in the CS field.
It has more to do with universities wanting to choose sources of funding that give them academic freedom. (Soliciting private capital as an investment is out of the question for early research, for instance, though university spin-off companies based on successful research are fairly common.) You can be funded from a university endowment, but if you're at a university that has limited funds earmarked for research, you're stuck appealing to the pencil-pushing grant agencies, who generally lack clue, and obtaining funding there is more an indication of your grant proposal authorship skills than anything else.