Also, if you were someone picking a stock, which is likely to go up higher? One where the stock demonstrably keeps going up and to the right, or one that doesn’t?

The issue is everyone’s own greed. Including the old ladies and pension fund managers.

Which provides many benefits - but also, when push comes to shove - exposes the ‘teeth’ more directly.

The stock market just allows more abstract and scalable access to that greed, that otherwise would be more randomly distributed.