After reading both articles, it seems to me much of the race for faster trading speed is fueled by the first come, first serve order matching. However, I don't see how this is actually important to either price discovery or liquidity. In other words, this artificial restriction does not actually contribute to greater good of the stock market.

I presume it was designed to ensure fairness, but is it any more 'fair' than random selection (true random, from a physical source that cannot be influenced) from all available matching bids.

Would anyone care to present an argument on how FIFO matching, after best price, is beneficial in the broader sense?