Your perspective on patents seems colored by the relative recent advent of patent trolls and the use of litigation to stifle innovation and competition. I suggest you look at the situation in England around 300 years ago and compare to the feudal system that was the rule elsewhere at the time - everything had to be approved by the king or the nobility, who had vested interests in land owning and serf systems. This social order was the real inhibitor of technological progress that England was the first country the liberate itself from.

Laws that protected the IP rights of inventors were absolutely crucial to that process.

Check out the Wright brothers patent war at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers_patent_war

Thanks that was interesting. But I'm not sure if there is a point related to the discussion in there or if this is just a tangential piece of trivia?

It's an example of how the patent system will present legal hurdles to inventors. Not just opportunities.

If you follow what those industrial pioneers were up to, you will find them at least at litigious as people are today. They certainly protected their patents and inventions with teeth and claws