There used to be much more of a belief that the reason this stuff has an appreciable value to speak of is because it's either creating a channel for society's productivity or it's creating a position to skim pennies off of society's productivity. But less and less does it feel like productivity is even in the equation anymore. What the quoted statement describes is much closer to a Ponzi scheme than what finance is actually supposed to be about, but it's getting harder and harder to tell the difference.

Also if the cutoff point for raising concerns about this was hundreds of years ago that really sucks for everyone alive today.