And patents have never protected the people we assume they are meant to protect. The actual inventor.

No, a patent is a $5000 gun, but the bullets cost a million dollars a piece.
Don Lancaster pretty much proved that for an inventor, the patent is useless, less than useless in that, at best, it will cost you a lot of time and money.
Don said, back in the 80s, that the best way to "patent" something was to make a write up and disclose everything in a magazine.

I have always hated the idea of IP, because trying to hold onto an idea while sharing it
... having your cake and eating it too...
is just so absurd, illogical and bad for the world.