If you know that someone else has an edge, you can plan for it and you know how much risk you're taking on. The stock market is heavily regulated to reduce risk in trading. The scandal isn't necessarily that some people get the info early (although that plays better in the news), but that it's a secret.
Uhm, it's not a secret at all. It's called the SEC Edgar Public Dissemination Service. It's right there on their website with instructions on how to subscribe along with specifications and contact information. There is no conspiracy here.
If it were known, it wouldn't be news that two independent studies discovered it.
Edit: the second link says "Being forwarded all public filings acquired and accepted by EDGAR at the same time as filings are sent to the SEC from EDGAR". It does not say "several seconds early."
If you worked trading earnings it would not be news to you. Computers are also polling other places (like company websites) to see if the content is just hidden but still available or gets accidentally posted early.
