Novelty seekers sample the space of ideas and solutions that are unknown to the group, essentially generating hypotheses that the group then tests against its own objective functions, whether those are functional or aesthetic.
The group must necessarily generate surpluses in order for the novelty seekers to have the time and energy to generate new hypotheses. On the other hand, novelty seeking itself must be grounded in some minimal way with the experience of the group, else it will lose its meaning to the group. There is always a tension between the two. The cutting edge of such novelty seeking is probably in controversial forms of modern art.
Of course nobody knows the conditions that give rise to novelty seekers. The old adage "necessity is the mother of invention" is probably a fallacy. Necessity is more likely the force that chooses the most optimal inventions that were themselves generated using surplus time and energy.
Another way to think about this is as Novelty Seeking rather than Novelty Seekers. Novelty Seeking means we don't discretely divide groups into one type of person or the other, but rather, we allow a portion of anyone's time and energy to be dedicated to Novelty seeking, depending upon their propensity and desire for such pursuits. Arguably, this would get a large enough group the broadest and most diverse set of hypotheses.