You're measuring the wrong direction. Don't measure what percentage of industry publishes with academics. Instead, measure what percent of academics __in ML__ publish with industry. This direction because one is much larger than the other. Second, I mean... I am a researcher... and I'm talking about the environment I'm working in. It sounds like you're outside this environment trying to educate me on it. Am I misunderstanding here?

can do something that actually impacts the business -- that is actually useful to other humans

Do not confuse these two. That's incredibly naive.