That's a rather heartless take. You could make the same argument regarding the need to protect any vulnerable members of society. Say, people who are immunocompromised during a global pandemic. Oh wait...
It's never just pure mathematics. You always have a human layer on top, and that means that there is an attack surface for self-interested people to take advantage of others. The purpose of regulation is to minimize the damage those people can do.
I suppose in a future where all the humans are extinct, and monolithic AI's rule the planet, your comment would hold more water.