HFT is only a bad thing, because it's removes bright minds from working on other problems; not because it hurts other market participants (which it doesn't---apart from being competition to other market makers).

I've read some interesting proposal that removing the subpenny rule would make speed less of a concern, since it would be possible to undercut on price instead.

See https://www.chrisstucchio.com/blog/2012/hft_whats_broken.htm...