There in lies the problem with today's traders, none of them have a clue as to the costs of trading back in the day as all they know is $7 a trade... Far cry from $300 a trade that people were paying.
Speed??? Lol, whatever, there were distinct advantages to whom you used as a broker and who you were. The technology leveled that for awhile until latency was figured out and it's advantages. It really doesn't matter what they put in place as somehow it is going to get around that barrier eventually.