I believe the bigger issue with a playing field not being even is that people who "don't deserve" the reward end up accumulating the profits they wouldn't have

I believe the bigger issue with a playing field not being even is that people who "don't deserve" the reward end up accumulating the profits they wouldn't have otherwise, and then not providing the resources to the actual innovators; this isn't to say that the system isn't broken on the other side of the coin, where innovators are simply amassing resources and perhaps not efficiently reintroducing them into the market for everyone's gain in quality of life, etc.