In virtually EVERY other industry are only those trusted who provide a proven track record. Lawyers, doctors, teachers, engineers, architects, artists, musicians, actors all have to provide references and showcase their portfolios before anyone talks to them. Heck, even renters.
Only in the financial industry are there that many naive and desperate people that they accept all sorts of excuses by sharlatans to forgo a basic smell test. Poor people who heard of the very few who made it are so clouded in their judgement, so desperate to get a piece of the cake that you can feed them any kind of excuses and they take it without hesitation. Hope is one of the biggest enemies of investing and trading and yet for most novice and unsuccessful retail punters its almost the only existing emotion that drives everything.
It pisses me off that certain people would take advantage of others in order to turn a profit. Kind of like the old people that blow their retirement savings going down to the boats/casino. My grandparents fell for this nonsense. Hope is the enemy, I would agree with you there.