There are other objectives for investors than just total return, like risk management, that justify fees in many cases.
> Bottom line: in making markets more efficient, the financial industry makes the economy as a whole a lot less efficient by siphoning off a huge chunk to feed itself.
That's a huge leap that absolutely requires some evidence to back up. This is the typical argument, but it's not convincing without any data, and just plays to the emotional "finance is evil" crowd.
Not that that is viable or realistic.
Until we have politicians and a voting population discussing actual issues instead of whatever is happening now, there are no realistic viable alternatives. (and it's not hard to believe that many powerful, influential, intelligent people are intentionally pushing politics to be foolish so that nobody has any interest in improving real issues)
Finance helps accomplish this but with overhead. Finance tends to have power over itself and there is little motivation to minimize itself because there isn't a third party checking its power.
So "finance" is a tax on everything everybody does. It has made itself complex enough that few people not profiting from it understand it, and it does a good job convincing the world it is necessary.
Your experience is exactly the reason why it exists to the extent it does today -- nobody can explain to a lay person why finance is a necessary evil nor what is wrong with it.
Bottom line: in making markets more efficient, the financial industry makes the economy as a whole a lot less efficient by siphoning off a huge chunk to feed itself.