[snowwrestler]

The metric of measurement is wealth, which profits create.

Your proposed change would reduce the benefit because it would eliminate the profit (wealth) that HFT firms create.

Your proposed system is not hypothetical; it is how all trades used to happen. HFT did not arise from nothing. People developed it because it created new profit in addition to that generated by slower trading.

[judk]

Are you seriously claiming that profits create wealth but counterparty losses don't destroy wealth???

[snowwrestler]

Are you claiming that the stock market is zero sum?