Becareful, I agree with what you are saying except for one point. Your belief that punters can be devided into Hadicappers and system users. It is a grey area surely. Most hadicappers also use systems and vis-a-vis. I have my system account and my handicapping account [system account this year is killing my hadicapping account] and often due to time restrictions, my system account is the only one used.
I maintain hadicapping [a system in itself but not in the sense that it is purely mechanical like most 'systems'] due to the intellectual challenge I need to maintain interest. Profit is the the no. 1 goal but not the whole aim as otherwise racing is reduced to nothing more than counting money [accounting]. The sport of Kings ? Hardly.