Earlier quoted context omitted.
Im the opposite, I think things like this are the most important things they can be doing. Empowering the next generation of innovators, empowering people. People are who do those experiments...
Empowering to do what? If NASA spends all day making comics then will attract people that like making media about rockets and not rockets themselves. If NASA makes cool rockets then they will attract people that naturally align with their mission of making cool rockets. If you do [THING] get good at doing [THING] and you will attract people that also want to do [THING].
Comics and books inspire people to get traits and achieve things like the characters from the stories. As an example: Elon, because of reading Isaac Asimov's Foundation and other sci-fi books, got inspired to do space stuff. Not to become a sci-fi writer (although that could have happened as well)
Many scientists and engineers have been inspired this way when they were kids.