Not quite, it’s “If you build it, they might come.” You only need to look to the history of railroad in the US to see how infrastructure frequently didn’t pay off.
Yep, but railroads were extremely overbuilt and huge swaths of companies went bankrupt. My point is that despite eventual usage, infrastructure is fraught with wiped out companies.
Look at the Alaskan Railroad for a more recent example.
Look to airships for an example of things that just completely fell out of use or trackless trains.
