In an economy where ideas have value, it seems logical we should have property protection, much like we do for physical goods. Its easy to argue "ideas should be freely shared", but if an idea takes 20 years and $100M dollars to develop, and there are no protections for ideas, then no one will take the time to develop them. Most modern technology we have is due to copyright/patents (drugs, electronics, entertainment, etc.), because without those protections, no one would have invested the time and energy to develop them in the first place.
I believe you are probably only looking at the current state of the world and seeing how it "stifles competition" or "hampers innovation". Those allegations are probably true to some extent, especially in specific cases, but its also missing the fact that without those protections, the tech likely wouldn't be created in the first place (and so you still wouldn't be able to freely use the idea, since the person who invented it wouldn't have).
I believe you are probably only looking at the current state of the world and seeing how it "stifles competition" or "hampers innovation". Those allegations are probably true to some extent, especially in specific cases, but its also missing the fact that without those protections, the tech likely wouldn't be created in the first place (and so you still wouldn't be able to freely use the idea, since the person who invented it wouldn't have).