1) there isn't that much money in HFT. It has an ever decreasing number of players working for an ever decreasing amount of profit. Other areas of finance such as hedge funds, traditional investment banks, and derivatives creation are much bigger and have just as many "smart" people working in them. Don't get me started on advertising...
2) HFT doesn't turn time into money. It buys & sells risk in the form of liquidity. One way that it does this more efficiently is by being able to get in and out of positions fast.
HN, predictably, has a huge bias towards the capital raising/allocation side of the financial markets, but this is not why most participants are involved. Hedging risk is another huge (probably bigger) reason the markets exist. HFT allow that risk to be hedged more cheaply and more predictably so they provide value to the rest of the market.
In trading, a quant's job is to outsmart or outspeed the other bank's team. They invest considerable brain power, effort and money into producing incremental improvements that are quickly rendered meaningless by the work of the team in the building across the street.
Another prime example is advertising, a zero-sum game where competing brands fight to undo other brands' brainwashing efforts and replace it with their own brainwashing. A waste of the time and energy of million of humans.
Some more ideas on the subject: http://www.sphere-engineering.com/blog/15-hour-work-week.htm...
Just be glad that some people's brains are bent on stuff of benefit to you, and concentrate, if you like, on what of general benefit you can do with your own brain.