As a software developer, I'm not exactly representative, nor are you. The point was about ambition/popular perception, not the reality. If your "maybe someday" dream prominently features being issued a patent, it's not because you'll use the patent responsibily to defend the idea that you're actively developing and marketing. If your "maybe someday" plan involves developing and marketing an idea, patents might be a factor somewhere way down the list of how to get there, but that's a very different ambition.
(That's not to say that the reality isn't also broken, just that popular perception is even more broken.)
> The point was about ambition/popular perception, not the reality.
What a silly point then. Who cares what people's perceptions are when they are not based in reality.
> If your "maybe someday" dream prominently features being issued a patent, it's not because you'll use the patent responsibily to defend the idea that you're actively developing and marketing.
I see, so nobody can get a patent because nobody will use a patent "responsibly".
(That's not to say that the reality isn't also broken, just that popular perception is even more broken.)