I know where it comes from, with my scientists hat on, I completely agree with the piece. But from a literary perspective, it is like being repeatedly bashed round the head by a moron with a length of 2x4.
This conceit can be done well. Mitchell and Webb's little old lady job-justification hearings are a particularly good example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbXTBPN1HhA
Oh wow, that's pretty funny. These "gamblers" on the stock market do actually make the system work better and moves investment to places where it's likelier to have a good return. So they do help, although in a very abstract way and maybe not as much in practice as in theory but still.
A better question than whether they help is how much and how much they should be rewarded for that help.
This conceit can be done well. Mitchell and Webb's little old lady job-justification hearings are a particularly good example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbXTBPN1HhA