> It feels like the fact that there are any returns left for a retail investor in public stock market investing speaks more to the quantities of wealth creation taking place than the absence of this sort of outrageous market rule capture.

This is why lots of retail on forums like wsb treat the market as gambling. There is almost no edge you can get when compared to big players. And even if you make correct assumptions you can get losses out of them either by them being already priced in or via short manipulation.

One example I remember last January's fake tesla brake issues the week a huge volume or calls expired.