I think this is the fundamental difference in our points of view. I've outlined why I think the frequency is a red-herring, and the speed at which they can execute on information relative to other actors is the real item in question, changing the interval at which the orders are realized doesn't really affect if they are still handled on a first come first serve basis. If they aren't then HFT may be affected more adversely, but that may bring other adverse behavior that hasn't been accounted for.
You either aren't addressing this aspect of my argument at all, or I'm entirely missing it in your responses (which is entirely possible, mental context can affect interpretation quite a bit). I don't know how to continue without you either addressing that aspect of my argument, or pedantically pointing out where you already have so I don't miss it again, since at this point we're just saying the same thing to each other over and over. :/
Put another way. If there is no millisecond updates then there is no HFT trading. It vanishes completely. No one is having any issues with this new reality being first come first serve. So again your argument is attacking a strawman.
We know how the market looked like without HFT because we lived in a world without it. What consequences are you talking about?
It's also worth mentioning that the stock market stops every day and over the whole weekend so if reality was the key goal then it should always be open.
In other words we decide the frequency and as far as I understand HFT it provides no value because it's not reacting on outside information it's reacting on price volatility in the milliseconds which isn't really a reflection of anything much more than price fluctuation at the milliseconds.
You take that away you take away the advantage of most HFT. I don't see how thats not part of the solution.
HFT algorithms are humans competing at a meta level which begs the question whether the value it provides is meta too. I.e. I have yet to see any benefit HFT brings to anyone but those who do HFT. It doesn't seem to help the market as far as I can see.
It's done as I said purely because it's possible with computers to trade there and it seems to be a privatized version of a tobin tax.