Is having superior information and data not consistent with a level playing field? What about hiring up a significant portion of all the top college graduates and having them work around the clock to give you every possible advantage? Is that consistent with a level playing field?

My point is that there are a lot of things short of fraud that we consider "meritocracy" (and having superior information and superior analysis usually falls into that category), but those things systematically stack transactions in favor of the parties that can afford to buy them. Even if you have zero fraud, zero lobbying, etc, you'd still see wealth flowing to Wall Street from Main Street.