I feel sorry for all of us who believe that money is the only thing of value that was traded in the exchange. Which essentially is your same point, I know.

All those who say, "yeah, but they got paid, the investor risked their money" completely see no value in the time that was traded for the money, which, almost by definition, cannot be the case. The money invested was done so in order to be traded for something of equal value - time. But most people do not see this, and consider themselves lucky if the person with the money was "generous" enough to let them have some of the spoils of their joint effort.

Even sorrier are those who value their time more than it's worth to anyone but themselves.