Because society has been there and done that when a small elite controled society - its was called the dark ages and if the King didn't approved it didn't happen. It was only when the tight hand of control lifted with the discovery of the New World that a clever person could get rich. And when many got really rich they funded people like Galileo and Newton to understand the world. It was the money from the evil rich capitalists that started science, not the King's gold. Just look at who the patrons of early science were.

I for one do not want to see science go back to the dark ages where only the King funds science and only the King's scientists are allowed to own valuable specimens like meteors.

A person should not have be be a scientist recognized by NASA to own a meteorite, anyone should have the right to do so and dream of space when then look at it on their shelf.

And private funded rockets will open up the Solar System in way that NASA could never dream up, uneffect by the whim of the King. Its not about being efficient, its about freedom.