Face it. Someone is always going to have an advantage over you. I dont care if thats fair or not, I just deal with it and do what Ive got to do.
Your example of human based front-running is/was happening at a scale that's significantly smaller compared to the current fully-automated 100% of the time the market is open algorithmic front-running. If people can see this happening and see the mass skimming of billions of dollars flowing through the exchanges then yes, it absolutely is a problem for everyone. You may not care if it's fair, but there's quite a bit of people who do care - and they have a lot more money at risk than you and I.
There are ways of seeing what algos are up to and screwing witht hem as a discretionary trader. Because they are 'mechanical', you know what their next move is likely to be.
I think you're conflating buy/sell algos which react to the book or tape with HFT algos which arb via direct vs SIP feeds and basically rip people off. How are you going to "see this" and "screw with them?"