[tomp]

HFT don't provide liquidity for liquidity's sake. They make markets more efficient, i.e. closer to the "one true price" (not necessarily the fair price, because there's no way HFTs can outbid all the money collected in index/sovereign founds or printed by central banks). They also reduce the spreads. For an ordinary person, they improve the markets.

The complaint about "brilliant minds being wasted" rings true, but you could make the same complaint about all of finance, and even most of Silicon Valley focused on extracting rents by serving ads - both are ultimately zero-sum games where insiders profit at the loss of society.

I think the ultimate problem is, there are no real problems that smart people could work on and make a contribution (and earn a good living) - or at least I don't see any.