Theft of trade secrets and a non-compete are unrelated and separate things.

Yes, this is why garden leaves are popular in quant finance.

You get paid for about a year to do nothing so that the trade secrets from your firm (trading strategies) expire.

That's very different from a non-compete. A non-compete is about your own know-how, not the company's.

Your gripe is with the parent comment then for mentioning them in the first place, not me. I was just responding to their aside.