I'm not taking either side but I have to ask, who cares? You sell naked options, you accept the responsibility. Also GME was the only equity I know that went 100x in 10 months. What other stock did that? Not even TSLA. Don't move the goalposts.
Macroscopic vs microscopic scale, you are just looking at this from your own POV. Sure, a buy stop order will "work" aside from gaps provided you don't need to move too much volume. Coincidentally, when there's a >100% short base to cover lots of volume needs to be moved. On the macro scale, margins have the purpose of preventing the actions of greedy idiots in aggregate (hedge funs, retail, or otherwise) from blowing the entire financial system. It is to the benefit of almost nobody else if that was to happen.
Too much is if you don't have proper risk management. Buy stop works with gaps if you accept the loss.
So it's the old naked shorting problem , eh. I thought the SEC had shut that down a number of years ago. Apparently not. Maybe the Biden SEC will finally do it. It's illegal, and thank goodness. But just because its illegal won't make it disappear if it isn't prosecuted, because it's very profitable -- and too, very damaging to the target and the legitimate equity holders. It won't go away spontaneously, so it's time for some major fines and damages to be wrested from the perpetrators. Once it is no longer profitable, it will stop. Write your SEC. I've done it in the past, obviously to little avail.
When has it not been? Did you listen in on the congressional inquiries of robinhood and Co? It can't get more pathetic. Nobody in congress remotely understands the shenanigans played in the financial industry. Nobody cares at all. Where are all the democratic hawks that promised they would clean up and empower the small guy with more rights? It's all a giant circus in finance and politics, created to empower an elite and ensure that elite holds a firm grip on everything.
Well the elite are always going to win, they win at everything, its called evolution, strong get stronger. But the markets are an avenue for the real battlers to take on the elite, laws should be there to assist them.