> if it truly is novel, no one will be able to replicate it.
Novel and non-obvious. Many novel concepts are easily replicated from first principles given sufficient incentive. Only in rare cases is the solution non-obvious. Patents are most valuable to the inventor when reverse engineering or reinvention is more-or-less inevitable; to the public, whom the patent office is supposed to represent, they serve a purpose only in cases where the invention would otherwise be likely to remain a trade secret indefinitely. And that's only if the patent clearly describes the key elements of the invention such that it could actually be recreated, and doesn't last so long that the invention is thoroughly obsolete by the time the patent expires.
Novel and non-obvious. Many novel concepts are easily replicated from first principles given sufficient incentive. Only in rare cases is the solution non-obvious. Patents are most valuable to the inventor when reverse engineering or reinvention is more-or-less inevitable; to the public, whom the patent office is supposed to represent, they serve a purpose only in cases where the invention would otherwise be likely to remain a trade secret indefinitely. And that's only if the patent clearly describes the key elements of the invention such that it could actually be recreated, and doesn't last so long that the invention is thoroughly obsolete by the time the patent expires.