All fields are broadly similar, and any two fields are also different.
Because fields are different, patents have different effects in different fields. Thus, it is easy for patents to be beneficial on the whole in one field and harmful on the whole in another field. One way in which fields vary quantitatively is in how a patentable technique relates to a usable product. At the other extreme we find pharmaceuticals, where a patent covers an entire chemical formula as a whole. A patent on a chemical formula is much closer, in its effects, to software copyright than to software patents.