> Wisdom of crowds > wisdom of individual firms

I doubt the utility of this simple aphorism. Primarily "the crowd" has a strong bias and would only consist of people willing to take the time to put a financial stake on their position.

> Manipulating the weather seems easy enough to detect

What are you basing this off of?

> and much more expensive than any benefit you'd get

Cloud seeding is not particularly expensive. The problem is the people performing this work may never interact with your market. You're literally playing a rigged game without any clue.

> and there aren't really any negative externalities.

The folly of man in a single sentence.