That's how Nietzsche answers those that blame him for bringing forward relativism, and I don't think speedrunning is absurd, just egregiously arbitrary.
If a bug makes the run take longer they don't investigate it.
Actual counterexample, plenty of optimization came from random guys popping up in the community explaining something they found about the code, that was overlooked for years.
More? A huge emphasis is put on mechanically pulling the run off, which is pointless from a QA point of view, now we can maybe make an argument for TAS in that regard.
Making your own valorial framework is a close cousin to accepting there is no inherent one.
This is true for many things (all things?), but I think we can agree that as pointless or challenging being fast driving a car, it still welcomes the intended use of the car, is surrounded by a broadly shared and accepted economical advantage.
Esports would be the equivalent, pushing to be the best at a game, the way it's meant to be played.
Speedrun is getting into a racing car and mastering with an iron will getting in and out as fast as possible.
Do such efforts bring value to gaming or are they more of an academic exercise?
Neither? Speedrunning is entirely nihilistic. It rejects the rules of society to the point of rejecting the rules of games themselves in favor of meaningless tantric repetition. It's the eternal pointless chase for a meaning that was never there and never will.
I find it fun and dreadful at the same time, as a concept, I would never do it myself in a million years.
I guess having something in there is good but it's inherently an issue when the topic at hand is acting outside survelliance.
Let's say, for example, things escalate and reddit get fully weaponized for the benefit of one side, and they start pushing for known compromised VPNs. How can you fight that if pepole got into the habit of trusting such platform?
Upside-down loaf position