I think this is redefining some important words. how about > Patents, by design, reward people churning out patent applications and extract rents by monetizing

I think this is redefining some important words. how about > Patents, by design, reward people churning out patent applications and extract rents by monetizing monopolies for technical concepts at expense of the public. The set of patent applicants and actual innovators overlaps a little but not much. You can try to defend many different kinds of monopolies using the jobs argument. A lot of things, like eg shoes, would be more expensive, and have higher paid positions for the employees, if their production was artificially constrained.