Should Hedge Funds be Regulated?

As the title says, should there be stricter regulation of HF's? So many times HF's get a lot of scrutiny for "Exacerbating" the bears that happen in financial markets because of their huge leverage positions and ability to short markets to gain from other people's losses. My take on it is that although these hedgies gain from other people's losses, the HF's aren't the cause but are just sometimes smarter in their trading strategies and have more knowledge than other market players, so regulating them for their knowledge of markets seems kinda unfair. Shorting distressed debt to sink a struggling company seems ruthless right? Or is it just nature's course to sink these struggling companies? No pain no gain right?