Cold Shoulders

Often it seems that select in the industry will give a cold shoulder to an idea. Lets take a quick look at ideas.
In 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated in the atmosphere from damage to the heat tiles during lift off. In contrast to the concept of using heat tiles on space vehicles, Burt Rutan proved in 2004 that
outside the normal approach is not the wrong way, launching a vehicle into space and designed the craft to return back into the earths lower atmosphere without the use of a heat shield and without burning up from
air friction. The platform design was outside the normal concept approach to space flight. Had NASA every considered Rutan’s concept? If not, why? Is it because the origin of the idea and respective proprietary rights did not come from within the organization? Why should this matter to anyone? We all benefit as a whole. Does the organization believe that they will not be considered "competitive" if they pursue an idea that did not come from within their organization?