Scalping exists when supply < demand. Sony made the calculated decision to price the PS5 so low that demand would vastly outstrip their capacity to manufacture, making the PS5 a hot product and extremely difficult to purchase.

The scalper, essentially did the difficult task of locating and purchasing this scarce product so that his customers didn’t have to.

You could have scanned inventory levels across multiple stores and websites and rushed and made a purchase, but that apparently wasn’t worth it to you, or to many other people.

No one is forcing you to buy a PS5 for twice the price. The scalper can sell his PS5’s to the people who value them the most.

The secondary market is simply the most efficient way to allocate scarce resources, the fact you have to compete in that market doesn’t make it any less efficient.