It's quite a statement. You're almost saying capitalism and efficient markets are pointless. Maybe they are, but I think it's nothing like crypto.

In the old days before HFT, you weren't sure you'd get the best price. You'd have to rely on a broker to make sure that happens, but as a retail trader you generally got a worse price/out of date price.

Nowadays with HFT you can get pretty much the best price anywhere. Those <1ms HFT traders make that happen. It's the efficient market hypothesis in effect, made possible by HFT.

Now is it pointless to shave off even more ns in the all out war to grab a piece of the order flow? For retail and institutional investors, at a certain point, yes it's completely pointless.

But it's also just pure capitalism at work. HFT firms compete against each other, and the competition is about speed to provide the best price and volume. If you try to regulate with something like enforced delays, then what do you compete on instead?