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I do not think the transistor effect was found by experimentalists..
Same goes for laser.
Nuclear energy is also on the list (E=mc2 and so on).
All of those are extremely important for today's technology and industry.
As far as Tesla is concerned, he was also a theorist (however he did not produce many papers by today's standards, his work was mostly documented in a form of patents, which was a general practice at those times, dictated by Edison and others. But, for example, multiphase AC could not be envisaged without solid theoretical understanding of the subject - which is why Edison didn't get it, ever) .
However, practical work and research was very important... but not to that extent as suggested.
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