Do/did intelligent people like Dennis Ritchie really not feel any discomfort by the fact that their great work robs the world of that very work through the parent system?
[1] See the answer to question 25 on Rob Pike's blog: https://commandcenter.blogspot.com/2020/01/unix-quiz-answers....
If, _back_then_, it was new, non-obvious to a person having ordinary skill in the art (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Person_having_ordinary_skill_i...), and not the only way to do what it does, why wouldn’t it?
Now, was it, back then? I wouldn’t know, but I think there is a decent chance it was.
As with most laws there's good and bad.
It would be very difficult to have a patent system where patents are owned exclusively by individuals, especially single individuals.
But to address what you said directly, I don't think it would be hard to have a system where patents are owned by an individual rather than a corporation. There's no fundamental law of the universe which says that patents must be assignable to corporations, or that patents must be assignable to someone other than the inventor at all. Though again, I am not advocating for such a system, and again, I am not sure why you are bringing it up.
maybe it was one of those that slipped through the patent office as outside their true expertise?