You're going too far by calling VCs "rent seekers". They do provide value with other peoples' money to build companies. No matter how much people love to hate them, they are a necessary part of the startup ecosystem. Most of them fail and end up in tears in the long run -- it's just the nature of VC. There's no need to punch them when they're down.
in my personal opinion most if not all modern startups are seeking to create a system in which rent seeking behaviour is the end goal.
The stereotypical SV playbook is to enter a market, don't give a crap about the local regulation or laws, try to get big by using your cheap money to outstrip to competition and do rent-seeking when you are the largest.
Also, a lot of startups are solving non fundemental problems.
We should be spending all that engineering effort fixing things like climate change, food security for the global south and a way to deal with the aging population in the western world instead of thinking about algorithms to get more clicks on ads.
