It's ridiculous that you have to spend $10K to patent your idea. Let's just get rid of all those patent office people and lawyers, and save everyone a lot of time and money.
The $10k is a feature, not a bug. Society shouldn't allow patents to be filed without commercial intent (because otherwise you are depriving the world of an idea for 20 years without meaningfully using it), and a $10k pricetag is a good signal of commercial intent. In the EU, patents have escalating fees to make sure that patent rights are only guaranteed as long as a commercial enterprise continues to be successful.
And no, the intent to file and then sell the patent is not a good "commercial intent."
Which means that for rich people / patent trolls what society allows doesn't matter. Patents are definitely a bug, at least in software. Time to get rid of them.
And no, the intent to file and then sell the patent is not a good "commercial intent."