If stocks did not have positive expected return no one would invest. What you're talking about is daytrading where there's a large failure rate so much so people call it gambling because of the nature of how swingy and illogical it can be.
Besides that, there's also the perspective that options help stabilize the market via hedging.
Then why do people gamble? Negative expected return, they still do it.
I am also not sure what you are saying. The return on the average stock is negative, it is a empirical fact.