They're a means of wealth extraction disguised under whatever load of bullshit someone wants you to believe.

I'll even prove it to you. Ask someone with skin in the Wall Street game to explain this stuff to you, not mathematically, but in layperson's terms, so simple that a young child could understand it. They either won't be able to do it, or they won't do it. You'll get one of two answers, "It's really complex." or "It can't be simplified."

When you hear this kind of shit, you're can safely deduce one of two things:

1. The person in question doesn't have a deep understanding of the phenomenon or principle they're trying to explain.

2. The person in question isn't interested in explaining it because it directly affects them.

Ask a Ph.D.-holding, teaching nuclear physicist to explain how a star works. They'll be able to break it down for a 5 year old, a 15 year old, and a 24 year old graduate student, at various levels of complexity.

Ask a Ph.D-holding investment banker or hedge fund manager how all this works. They don't want you to know, because it isn't creating value. Not the kind of value an Amazon or a Tesla creates. It creates value for them and for the large investors they represent. Not for you the layperson.