> R&D into new computer algorithms is a non-trivial investment, frequently requiring years and millions of dollars.

There is a strong opinion among computer researchers that pure algorithms are indistinguishable from math, and thus should be unpatentable. The math guy doing research on sound waves might be slightly annoyed when he gets denied a patent, but the guy working "on a computer" with the exact same math, doing the exact same research, gets a patent because he described the math "on a computer".

Of course, we could just start letting math also be patentable, because it too requires non-trivial investment, frequently requiring many many years and millions of dollars. That is, if the work behind something alone is enough to qualify for patentability.