An average person is unlikely to win this game. Our real returns are not 10% per year, they're closer to 4%. The 1%ers that hold top tier offices in this country voted themselves out of this game.
Only 60% of us own any stock at all and often through 401k or other indirect investment.
The fed, in essence, delegates the printing of money to banks since they are on the ground and should understand if more loans are necessary.
It's not pedantry. It's understanding the model of attribution which blames the "fed" for this when it clearly seems like a function of the systemic design of our economy and financial system. Put another way - abolish the fed, and I'm not sure how this would change. And in fact it might get worse as you've removed an oversight and controlling body.
Fixing that will, potentially fix the issue ... Or completely crash everything.
A quick perusal of Wikipedia’s article on the history of banking would reveal that banks figured out they could lend out more than the amount they had in deposit well before the concept of a central bank came into being, and the central banks’ role has historically been to keep things at least somewhat under control. So again, to put it simply, blaming the fed seems totally misguided here.
For instance without our current banking and financial system you’d have to pay banks to look after your money, if all they were allowed to do with it was hold on to it. This would have a similar drag on your principal as inflation does on buying power.