Comment by JeremyNT

> I don't think anyone finds this flavor of activity beneficial. What's beneficial is the underlying system that is sufficiently free and flexible that great things (like VMware to begin with) are possible. As much as we don't like "this" we don't want to put any bureaucrats in power to squash creativity and enterprise.

Ultimately, the purpose of a system is what it does.

We've structured our society such that performing this type of activity is extremely lucrative, and financial engineering is by all appearances the endeavor that humans value above all others.