[cryoshon]

Obligatory link to SENS: http://sens.org/ I think SENS is probably the best expression of what you're looking for, but you probably already know about it.

Slowing the damaging processes of aging should probably be part of a proper anti-aging strategy IMO, as it's easier to fix things that are slightly broken in comparison to things which are radically broken. I agree that mTOR based technologies are probably a dead end (no pun intended) in terms of anti-aging research, but it's such a fundamental pathway that we'd be stupid not to investigate it more fully and learn as much as possible as we can.

That said, your objections to this line of scientific inquiry are spot on. Dreaming bigger isn't what gets Novartis paid, though. Incremental plays are the best they can work for, I think. Leave it to biotech startups or other do-big-or-die research groups (if any exist) to try tackling the harder problems.