No-one likes cheats - even elite athletes are not allowed to gain an unfair advantage via doping. 20th century Robber-barons might have been an equally 'natural phenomenon', until legislation caught up with their unfair advantages.
This vague idea (which seems to be incredibly popular) that "everyone with more money than me took advantage of poors and cheated" is unfounded
This is not a new idea, the penultimate paragraph addresses this directly by quoting Smith: Smith warned against local trade associations which were inevitably conspiring “against the public…to raise prices,” and “restraining the competition in some employments to a smaller number than would otherwise…occasion a very important inequality” between occupations.
My other problem with these arguments is that they seem to point to some bad behavior, and the solution is usually higher taxes, that punish everyone, not just those supposedly engaging in the bad behavior.
I read it. The penultimate paragraph suggests that they do cheat. Did you read it? Heck, even the title is "Make elites compete", you could not have missed that.
This is not true...well, I'm no more biased than the article under discussion. I'm simply quoting the article and what I got from it.