At least on the quant side, I think the typical sentiment is that most researchers aren't interested in ops / developing infrastructure / curating datasets.
It sounds like you aren't really interested in a rational discussion by the second half of your post, but the typical arguments (incl in the post) for are that market makers reduce inefficiencies in the market & provide liquidity that significantly reduces the bar (i.e. make trading cheaper) for retail investors (like you or me) to trade.
I think it is generally accepted that society does benefit from a modern and efficiently run market. Whether or not automated market makers contribute to this could be up for debate, I guess.
Some tier-A mathematicians working on some pretty fucking cool problems in online decision making and machine learning, or someone who writes shit like:
"Young people these days, I am told, are illiterate and cannot understand the written word. They can learn only from video. So should I speak to them in the language they understand?
Yes, I probably am a genius—but the issue is meaningless."