Except their UX is streamlining away things and essentially manipulating users to get higher conversion rates and engagement. As seems to be the norm among successfull apps today. Just that stakes on the user side are more immediate than with news and social media.
They brought this onto themselves by optimizing for growth over healthy and sustainable markets.
Can you explain what specifically is manipulate about robinhood's ux? Maybe is me, but I don't find the ux of robinhood significantly different than the other brokerages I use (Fidelity and Merrill Edge).
This comes from someone who's of the opinion that manipulative dark UX patterns have been normalized - I have not used the competition you speak of, I wouldn't be surprised if they are similar.
The marketing push for options by calling it "instant trading" is pretty BS too.
They brought this onto themselves by optimizing for growth over healthy and sustainable markets.