To my understanding the patent office is here to assert if your patent is not stomping on another patent toes. Then you patent whatever and throw it in the legs of your competitor. You'll ultimately lose but you'll have wasted his time, money and brain space. Modern world, modern solutions.

Patent offices are cash machines. Their sole mission is to establish clear prior art and attribution and to prevent the same patent from being registered several times. That's all they do. They couldn't care less about the content of the patent. There are dozens of patents on perpetual energy machines, devices for communicating with spirits, very simple algorithms that have been documented for decades, and so on.