I just saw people arguing again in the group chat about "The on-chain transparency is obvious, why do we still get jumped in line," and I almost have it memorized... On one side, there are retail traders claiming they are just normal traders caught in the middle, and on the other side, market makers/robots saying "Serves you right for using that kind of slippage," and everyone still thinks they are the victims. Recently, with memes and celebrity shoutouts grabbing attention, on-chain activity has become even more lively. Newcomers rush in with full speed and emotions running high, but the final loss often isn't due to the wrong direction, but due to the order of execution, which is quite ironic.

To put it simply, MEV's "cutting in line" doesn't affect a single transaction; it quietly shifts the cost from those who can write scripts to those who can't: you think you're competing with the market, but you're actually competing over who gets to be first or last in the block. Fair or unfair? I think the blockchain has never promised "first come, first served." It promises that "the rules are written there," but who sets the rules and who can exploit them comes back to governance and profit distribution: proposals that say "optimize user experience" might just mean "rebrand certain taxes for some people." My current approach is pretty simple: don't chase after hype, use smaller slippage, and avoid pools that are obviously surrounded by bots... It's not elegant, but at least I won't be the last relay baton.