I used to really think that on-chain transactions were just "first come, first served." When I was a beginner and saw that I clearly sent the transaction first but it was executed after someone else's, I thought it was just a wallet lag...

Now I understand: many times it's not lag, but someone is "cutting in line" in the sorting process, inserting your transaction in the middle to make a quick profit. The most directly affected are retail traders chasing prices and small arbitrageurs, with slippage increasing, execution quality worsening, and sometimes being forced to become stepping stones for others. To put it simply, fairness isn't abstract; in the end, it all comes down to who pays more gas fees or who buys higher / sells lower.

During the recent extreme funding rate wave, people in the group argued whether to reverse or continue squeezing the bubble. I'm more concerned about: the more crowded it gets at these times, the easier it is to be "queue managed." You might think you're competing with the market, but you're actually competing with sorting rules and bots... Anyway, I now place orders more cautiously, preferring to miss out rather than become liquidity.