Lately I've been looking into MEV/ordering and all that mess, basically on-chain "cutting in line." I used to think it was pretty far from me, but after doing some interactions, I realized the biggest impact isn't from those big players talking about "efficiency," but from people like me who run tasks step-by-step and get their costs stuck: the same swap, if someone slips in and causes slippage, I end up eating more, gas might be wasted, and the path gets completely disrupted.

What's even more annoying is that this kind of "invisible tax" eventually drives small users away, leaving only bots or those willing to pay higher priority fees, and the sense of fairness gradually erodes. The collapse of on-chain games with inflation and studio bots is kind of similar: once the mechanism defaults to "those who cut in line win," ordinary users are left only to take the leftovers or serve as fuel.

Recently, I just lowered my goals, no longer chasing legendary airdrops, but instead doing two or three high-confidence, cost-controlled interactions per week. Slower, but more sustainable... Anyway, gambling on execution is better than gambling on luck.