Why didn't the Aztecs, Inca or Maya (apparently) apply "wheel tech?"

They had the technology. So why didn’t they use it?

Excerpt: "The wheel is believed to be over 5,200 years old, with the oldest known example — a wooden wheel with an axle — dating to around 3,200 BCE and discovered in what is now Slovenia.

This seemingly simple mechanism, often considered humanity’s quintessential invention, came about long after the advent of other, arguably more complex technologies, like boats, woven cloth, and agriculture.

The reason for its relatively late arrival is due to its design. The fit between a wheel and its fixed axle must be tight enough to keep everything together, but not so tight that it prevents the wheel from spinning.

On top of this, both the end of the axle and the hole of the wheel have to be perfectly smooth to minimize friction. While these challenges are easy to navigate in the 21st century, they were nearly insurmountable during prehistory. For this reason, the anthropologist David Anthony, author of The Horse, The Wheel, and Language, argues that while people might have conceived of the wheel in the Stone Age, its invention did not become a possibility until the introduction of precision tools like copper chisels in 4000 BC.

The invention of the wheel greatly accelerated the development of civilization by making it easier to travel large distances. Trade networks expanded, as did the scale and scope of imperial warfare. Towns and cities grew denser, their populations sustained by the increased productivity of wheelbarrow-assisted farming.

At least, that’s what happened in Eurasia.

Over on the other side of the Atlantic, the Aztecs, Incas, Maya, and Native Americans did not become acquainted with the wheel until after the arrival of European colonists during the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Why these societies never invented wheels of their own is unclear. Judging by their accurate cosmological calendars and impressive feats of engineering, to name just two examples, they definitely had the technical know-how.

Both the Maya and Incas even built roads — good roads — but those were reserved for pedestrians only. How come?"