I'm not sure it's as straightforward as all that. I'm fascinated by civilizations that had huge imagination that didn't pay off in technology. E.g. the Aztecs, whose name in Nahuatl means "craftsmen" but who used the circle for ornamental purposes only: never "dreamed up" even an axle, and thus never had a functional wheel, not even a pottery wheel, a spinning wheel, or a windlass for raising buckets from a well. Not even so much as a barrel-hoop.
They knew nothing of iron or bronze (their weapons were stone, obsidian) but had fantastic-worked gold and silver for ritual and ornamental purposes.
They worshiped all kids of imagined beings, birds, beasts, insects, but had no domesticated mammal to supply them with animal proteins and fats, nor to serve as a draft- or tractor-animal. Huge pyramids for sacrifice, and never so much as a donkey-cart!
I guess I should have refined my question: what does *this kind* of imagination (if that's what it is) contribute to one's aptness for survival/reproduction, if it does at all?
And if it doesn't, why would evolutionary forces have developed, preserved ,and extended these materially very-costly capabilities?
Well, if modern societies which have nuclear arms end up exterminating themselves (imagine the participants of the two world wars armed with nukes like select countries around the world today are), an external observer would conclude that the technological advancement contributed to their downfall. That’s why I mentioned that the circumstances are crucial in my earlier comment.
Imagination is just that, imagination. A vivid imagination correlates well with intelligence and creativity, both of which have potent survival benefits. That Benzene Ring example was just one such illustration.
That said, if you have dogs as pets you’d know that even dogs dream (if you don’t, then look up ‘dog dreaming’ on YouTube). Does the ability of dogs to dream imply that they are not the unthinking, imagination-lacking flesh-based automaton animals that certain Middle-East-origin religions project them as? Would their ability to dream imply that animals share something we do - an ability to imagine? Evolution supports this, while religion doesn’t (except maybe Dharmic religions like Buddhism / Hinduism). If animals can have an imagination, would they also have souls? This is the kind of questions a believer (in superstition) will have to contend with.