Actually that criticism about only "hoping to" is utterly bizarre. What else can be said? We can hardly know what is going to happen with certainty. If we did then there'd be no point at all in running the experiments, because that would mean that, one way or another, high-energy physics was already completely solved (at least, up to energy scales way beyond anything we can probe today). It has to be the case that we are only "maybe" on the verge of a breakthrough, or that we don't know what form that breakthrough will take.
And we certainly are, by the way. There are compelling theoretical and numerical arguments to suggest that if new physics is out there then it should appear in the low TeV range, ie within the range that the LHC is able to probe. Thus, if it does turn up something new then we'll have made a massive breakthrough in our understanding of how the Universe works. And if it does not, which is also possible, then clearly a radically new idea will be needed. Either way, physics is going to change drastically within the next decade or so.
The amount of taxpayers' money that is rolling in is hardly obscene. Anyone wanting to choose a lucrative money-earning career, at any rate, would steer well clear of the sciences. Khandro's criticisms are utterly unfounded.