> though the immense amount of [invested|wasted] (take your pick depending on cynicism) effort spent on this game makes me a little sad

that's an odd position to take. You seem to be ignoring the philosophy behind the cat&mouse game that is RE (and Security Engineering in general). What you call cosplaying Sisyphus is to me one of the most rewarding aspects of Tech. Breaking things especially is fun when somebody has made an effort to lock things down (and maybe even claimed it's "unhackable"). This is an area where you're still paid to solve puzzles and where taking the long-view matters. RE is complex and hard but exactly because of this it's one of the most rewarding things in all of CompSci.