I'm working on a medical device, so can't say I am only thinking about software patents.
I would suggest the bounty system as a way to deal with the need for CURES to disease. Or treatments if cures are not possible.
There is a cost to innovating and a cost of dealing with the government. Yes, dealing with the government is a very expensive process.
Ensuring safety is important. Does the current approach accomplish this? Some would question that it does.
Still, whoever pays that bill and takes the risk of never being paid back should get a fair return if successful.
If one feels that the government has the right to create this enormous regulatory burden, than it can certainly assign the benefits of going through all of that to the one paying the bills for a sufficient time to recover those costs.
I qualify that because I don't quite agree the government should be involved or that coercion is necessary, but that is a whole other can of worms.
If there is a benefit to be had, there is a price worth paying. I just don't automatically assume government is the way to make that happen.
We are quite used to seeing government or coercion as the method, but I think other mechanisms can make the same beneficial occur. For the most part, I think government is a far greater impediment to many good things than most people realize.
But I give your comment a point. Its a valid concern.