I don't quite think you understand the point of a support role. People who support me do a lot of innovation, fixing what isn't broken, and all of that. Most are highly empowered and I expect a few to take serious leadership roles in the organization, depending on seniority.
The primary question is one of purpose: someone in a support role is hired to keep me effective and productive, and evaluated on their ability to do so. I am their customer. If I win, they win.
The goal of IT isn't good systems architecture or innovation -- it's me. Supporting me well often requires good systems architecture and innovation. It also requires compromising those at times to my goals, having clean transition strategies, and similar choices as well. Those decisions are made based on their impact on me.
You are using IT as synonymous with Support/Helpdesk. Do you have an enterprise architect, do they report to the CIO? Maybe its the COO? Do you not consider systems architecture a part of your IT department?
I absolutely think you are wrong that innovating is derived from your needs, a technology group driving innovation could just as well include obsoleting you. An IT department can bring new business ideas to a leadership team, and arguably their leader is a part of that leadership team, at least until every c-suite person is tech savvy enough to obsolete the CIO position.
I am using IT to refer to more than support/help desk. It includes, for example, having a working network, email, and CRM. It includes custom database applications. It includes an internal wiki and an external web site. It includes lots of other things.
All of those things are there to support the business, not the other way around.
The primary question is one of purpose: someone in a support role is hired to keep me effective and productive, and evaluated on their ability to do so. I am their customer. If I win, they win.
The goal of IT isn't good systems architecture or innovation -- it's me. Supporting me well often requires good systems architecture and innovation. It also requires compromising those at times to my goals, having clean transition strategies, and similar choices as well. Those decisions are made based on their impact on me.