You're misinterpreting the discussion, I think. I can't tell if it's intentional or not. Nobody was coming down on anyone for their accomplishments. My intend

You're misinterpreting the discussion, I think. I can't tell if it's intentional or not. Nobody was coming down on anyone for their accomplishments. My intended contribution was that some (or in my experience, many) people in already achieved positions, regardless of how they arrived in their materially advanced station, might mistake the circumstances of another who is less materially fortunate as being so because it's a product of the less fortunate person's intrinsic inner worth. And when someone, who is trying to breach those meritocratic strata for financial or other material rewards, encounters that kind of mindset in their superiors it can be terribly inhibiting—like trying to climb a hill of ice that refuses to believe it's slippery of its own accord and that the continual flailing of the climber is a failing of the climber alone. Or sometimes that would-be climber prefers to stick around the plains and enjoy the views. Neither of those situations makes the would-be climber a less-capable, less whole person—even if the would-be climber cannot see the icy hill for what it is. ("Why not pick a better hill" is about as controllable as "why not be born into a more materially advanced family")