Is anyone else really disappointed by how mundane the "cutting edge" of science and engineering research actually is?

First, my internship at the LHC. I mean, I didn't expect that much as I'd seen a few vids before and I knew how much is just data crunching fed to academic departments all over the world. The LHC complex itself mostly academics and very few people actually get "play" with it in the sense of actually using the accelerator. What really depressed me is that the people there aren't brilliant. Most that I met there weren't much more intelligent than anyone from my (not highly rated) university. The people get more exited over memeshit like webcomics than the experiment, the ones that do get excited about the data are obviously faking it and weal on the theoretical side.

After graduation I got into defence which was my dream for as long as I can remember. The daunting procedure getting clearance -which is far more intense than private company NDAs etc. I'm used to- made me excited to finally get started on the project. Then the actual research pretty much boils down rather simple experiments I could've done with a few buds in a desert. Obviously I can't tell you what I do, but I mean historically even the most impressive things like bio/chem wmd programmes that have been exposed (such as WWII Japan/SA) gives you an idea of how "cutting edge" tech research is done by a few people without very specialized equipment and labs. Also I swear to god most private companies doing research on low tech consumer products have more security barriers.