Recently looking at on-chain transaction playback, I somewhat understand why everyone is criticizing MEV. Basically, it's when someone can "cut in line" ahead of you; for the same swap, you clearly click confirm, but due to slippage, the price gets worse, or the transaction even fails, wasting gas. The biggest impact isn't actually those who play tricks, but rather ordinary small users who are lazy to monitor the mempool, passively becoming "subsidies" for liquidity.

I myself am now more restrained: split large transactions, even if it’s slower; use limit orders/protection when possible; don’t chase if unsure. Developers talk a lot about modularity and Layer-DA narratives, but for someone like me who just wants to swap tokens properly, sorting out these issues doesn’t solve the experience, which still feels confusing… Anyway, I’ll follow the plan first and not let emotions cause me to lose control of my wallet.