I do not think that you should view patents as the only way that you can benefit from your work, because the likelihood is that many people will benefit from yo

I do not think that you should view patents as the only way that you can benefit from your work, because the likelihood is that many people will benefit from your work. If this is true, you are most likely to be watching people benefit from your work, unable to enforce due to financial constraints. That said, in a consolidating market, acquirers are highly likely to value said patents. So, to think that patents are not an asset is false. To think that you will gain competitive advantages in a land grab is also false. I do think that patents, when your product does take as much advantage of your IP as possible, are a net benefit, but they will cost you dearly to get and simply maintain.