Yes, patents do hamper innovation. But this does not acknowledge or address the counterfactual of whether not having a patent system would hamper innovation to

Yes, patents do hamper innovation. But this does not acknowledge or address the counterfactual of whether not having a patent system would hamper innovation to a greater extent. Without this the argument rests on an unstated assumption / magical thinking, which is not borne out by historical data. It’s like saying that traffic lights impede the flow of traffic (true), without acknowledging the fact that not having traffic lights would result in much greater congestion (also true).