In a different context I found it necessary to draw a sharp distinction between “the public good” which is a rather amorphous (and you prompt me to think possibly dangerously political) concept (which publics, and whose benefit?) and the production of “public goods” in the economic sense.

I don’t know if that helps here but the political economy view of a good that has the potential to create value in its context rather than a single thing to be targeted (which is likely to end up metricated as reaching the largest audience of having the biggest bang or whatever) might help here?