The struggle is how to come up with a system that minimizes the loopholes while not entirely crippling the things they are intended to protect.

the "things they are intended to protect" is profits for the rich.

The fact that you consider it so black and white

it is black and white. the patent system is a capitalist invention with no benefit to society.

Without some protections on human creations you end up with a war of who can steal the most ideas

you can't "steal" ideas any more than you can copyright them. you think that just because you signed some piece of paper, that nobody else can come along and do it anyway? as a pirate who "steals" all media and video games they consume, let me be the first to tell you that you are out of your mind. the only thing enforcing patents is the monopoly the government has on violence. the same government whose police force started as slave catchers. the same government that refuses to charge the rich and powerful from the Trump-Epstein list. patents exist to protect the profits of the rich and powerful, they do not exist to protect you.

You end up putting resources toward protecting your ideas and keeping them entirely secret

the patent system is no different than that. "your" ideas might not be secret, but nobody else can legally make use of them. there's no practical difference. either way, the benefits those idea bring are restricted to the few people with enough money to purchase access to them.

I’m not arguing that they have no downsides, I’m arguing that the position of “it’s all bad, get rid of it” is reductive, at best.

that's because you either don't understand the basics of capitalism, or you defend it because it's the only chains you've ever known. or you're rich and pretending you're not.

whatever the case, anyone who has a patent is a leech on society, and all patent holders should be hanged by the neck until dead. when we said "eat the rich", what we mean is kill them all. sorry if that bit confused you.